Ukraine presented at the meeting of the third Committee of the UN General Assembly, which is in charge of social, humanitarian and cultural issues, the draft resolution on the situation in the sphere of human rights in the Crimea and Sevastopol. As reported on the website of the organization, the meeting was held on Tuesday, November 8th.
According to the representative of Ukraine, Kiev insists that Russia as, in his words, “country-aggressor” comply with their obligations under international law concerning human rights on the Peninsula.
In response, the Russian delegate urged the Committee to vote against the draft and not to support “purely political” decision, which is beyond the scope of his authority. The document he called one-sided and said that it ignored the negative consequences of the actions of Ukraine against the Crimean, including the naval blockade of the Peninsula, but excluding military and other crimes committed by the Ukrainian authorities and documented by the Office of the UN high Commissioner for human rights (including detention, torture, ill-treatment, sexual violence, kidnapping threats, arbitrary detention and other).
The representative of Ukraine, in turn, has accused Russia that it exists in a “parallel reality”, and noted that the Committee first hears ridiculous accusations from the Russian side. Also, the Ukrainian delegate asked why Russia is opposing the Crimea the international observers, when the situation so well, as says the representative of the Russian Federation.
The sponsors of the draft resolution were made by 38 countries, including USA, UK, and France. The next meeting of the Committee of the UN General Assembly, which will consider and has adopted a number of documents concerning human rights in different countries, scheduled for November 10.
Crimea became part of Russia following a referendum in 2014. Kiev refused to recognize the results of the plebiscite and believes Peninsula Ukrainian territory. Moscow, in turn, indicates compliance with the procedures for the reunification of the Crimea with Russia the norms of international law.