Ukraine and its allies on Thursday denounced to the UN “the endless list” of abuses committed by Russia since the February 24 invasion, during a special session of the Human Rights Council that Moscow boycotted .
At the end of the meeting, requested by Kyiv, the 47 member states of the Council must vote on a draft resolution calling for an “investigation” by the UN international commission on Ukraine into serious human rights violations charges against Russian occupation troops in the regions of kyiv, Cherniguiv, Kharkiv and Sumy at the end of February and March 2022, “with a view to holding those responsible to account”.
“Thousands of people in my country have lost their lives. Russian shelling and shooting are part of our daily life,” Ukraine’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova said at the opening of the proceedings in a video address.
“Torture and enforced disappearances, sexual and gender-based violence, the list of Russian crimes is endless,” she denounced, before brandishing a sheet on which a little boy raped in front of his mother drew a whirlwind of black lines.
During the debates, many diplomats allied with kyiv, but also the UN, expressed their horror and indignation at the suffering endured by the Ukrainians.
“Russian aggression is accompanied, every day, by ever more macabre and unbearable discoveries”, affirmed the French ambassador Jérôme Bonnafont, while his British counterpart denounced the “brutal campaign” carried out by Moscow.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, who had previously accused the Russian military of actions “could amount to war crimes” in Ukraine since the February 24 invasion, said her office continued to verify allegations of abuse.
“The scale of illegal executions, including indications of summary executions in areas north of Kyiv, is shocking,” she said, adding that she currently has information on 300 cases.
“Unimaginable horrors” in Mariupol
Ms. Bachelet also denounced the “unimaginable horrors” suffered by the inhabitants of Mariupol.
The draft resolution also asks him to take stock — during the 50th session of the Council (13 June to 8 July) — of the humanitarian and human rights situation in Mariupol, now almost entirely under the control of the Russian forces.
This is the first meeting devoted to the deterioration of the human rights situation in Ukraine since the UN General Assembly suspended Moscow in early April from the highest body of the international organization in the field. human rights.
Russia having anticipated its suspension by renouncing its status as a member of the Human Rights Council, it can participate in the work of the Council as an observer. It also has the opportunity on Thursday to make use of its right of reply as a country concerned. But Moscow has chosen the empty chair.
“The Russian delegation will not legitimize this new political show organized in the form of an extraordinary session by its presence”, announced the spokesperson for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova.
At the end of a first meeting on March 4, kyiv succeeded in getting the Human Rights Council to adopt by an overwhelming majority a resolution deciding to urgently create an independent international commission of inquiry.
Its chairman, Erik Mose, a former judge at the Supreme Court of Norway and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and who also presided over the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), indicated that the commission had started its work although it does not yet have a budget.
He also pointed out that the “large number of entities” currently investigating the situation in Ukraine is not without raising “questions in terms of coordination”.