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UN Human Rights Council: Interactive Dialogue on High Commissioner's oral update on Ukraine

Statement delivered under Item 10

Human Rights Watch welcomes the continued reporting by the OHCHR on the human rights situation in Ukraine.

We deeply regret that OHCHR, as well as the OSCE, Council of Europe, NGOs and independent journalists, were denied access or had restricted access to Crimea, which has made it very difficult to conduct human rights monitoring. Russia should immediately provide unimpeded access for international institutions and independent experts.

Since Russia occupied Crimea over two years ago, Russian authorities have severely limited free expression, restricted peaceful assembly, and targeted the Crimean Tatar community that has openly opposed Russia’s actions in Crimea.

International actors should sustain constant pressure on Russia to curb human rights abuses.

With regard to the ongoing armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, the government of Ukraine should amend the existing measures to regulate travel between government-controlled and rebel-held areas. The existing overly bureaucratic permit system causes severe restrictions on the freedom of movement of civilians seeking to leave conflict-affected areas to access security and live-saving services, such as medical treatment, and also impedes prompt delivery of humanitarian aid.

In eastern Ukraine, government and rebel forces alike have failed to ensure proper protection for schools and respect for the right to education. Hundreds of schools have been damaged or completely destroyed due to fighting, leading to weeks and sometimes months of interrupted education.  Deploying military forces in and near schools endangers lives of teachers and students, exposes important education infrastructure to destruction, and can be a violation of the laws of war. Ukraine authorities should endorse the Safe Schools Declaration, and both rebel and Ukrainian forces should stop attacks on schools and the use of schools for military purposes.

Once more, Human Rights Watch calls on Ukraine to ratify the Rome statute and join the International Criminal Court as a full member. 

Ukrainian Parliament should repeal the so-called ‘anti-communist law’ which bans communism symbols, and ‘communist propaganda’ in Ukraine. As highlighted by the High Commissioner, the law is overly broad and deeply divisive, can have very negative implications for the freedom of expression and association, and may lead to increased tensions between far-right and far-left groups. 

Finally, we encourage the High Commissioner to pay attention to homophobia and intolerance that remain widespread in Ukraine, particularly after the recent surge of homophobic violence in Lviv, where on March 19 almost 200 far-right nationalists attacked a group of LGBT activists outside their hotel. Authorities should immediately investigate the attack on LGBT activists and assess whether police responded in an adequate manner to protect them. Ukraine authorities should publicly condemn the attack and maintain a zero tolerance policy towards homophobic violence in Ukraine.   

 

 

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