On Monday, February 27, the United Nations’ top human rights body and the Global Disarmament Forum met. Russia has come under fire for its invasion of Ukraine amid warnings that human rights around the world are going backwards.
The war in Moscow also dominated the opening sessions of the UN Human Rights Council and Geneva’s disarmament negotiating forum, days after the UN General Assembly in New York voted overwhelmingly for the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered the largest human rights violation we are experiencing today,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Human Rights Commission on the first day of a record six-week meeting.
Seventy-five years after the signing of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN human rights chief Volker Turk condemned “a resurgence of the destructive wars of aggression of a bygone era as we in Europe again witness Russia’s senseless invasion of Ukraine, and have global consequences.”
Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, along with nearly 150 ministers and heads of state and government, will address the Human Rights Council this week, warning that “Russia’s aggression is a test for the entire world.”
“Today it is Ukraine, but tomorrow it may be other neighboring countries. So we cannot remain neutral.”
About half of the more than 50 dignitaries who spoke on Monday, February 27 mentioned Ukraine.
Echoing warnings from many, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonne condemned “the use of rape as a weapon of war, torture and execution” in Ukraine and insisted that “those responsible for such crimes must be held accountable”.
Kiev and its allies were unhappy with the involvement of Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. The latter will address the Security Council on Thursday, March 2.
It will be the first time Russian officials from Moscow have attended in person since the war broke out a year ago. Russia, which denies committing war crimes or targeting civilians in Ukraine, was suspended from the Security Council in April over the invasion but can still participate as an observer.
Western diplomats have been publicly tight-lipped about their reaction to Ryabkov’s presence. They had previously left during Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s 2022 address to the council.
Yevheniia Filipenko, Ukraine’s permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, said Ukraine did not welcome Russia’s presence and would “act accordingly,” without giving details.
“Extremely unstable”
At the opening ceremony of the Disarmament Conference Forum held not long ago, British European Affairs Secretary Leo Doherty issued a statement on behalf of 44 countries criticizing Russia’s actions.
He said, “Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is not only a threat to Ukraine, but also a threat to international peace and security and the rules-based international order.”
U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Bonnie Jenkins criticized Russia for suspending its participation in New START. It was the last nuclear arms control treaty between Moscow and Washington.
“Russia has once again shown the world that it is not a responsible nuclear power,” she said. She also warned that “we are now facing an extremely unstable security environment”.
In her speech at the conference, German Foreign Minister Annalene Berberke also accused Russia of “undermining the arms control architecture we all rely on”.
She also made an impassioned appeal to the Human Rights Commission, citing the story of one man. In March 2022, this person saw 15 children being taken away from a children’s home run by the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, but he “had no chance to stop.”
The 15 were “among countless Ukrainian children reportedly abducted by Russia,” she said.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will speak remotely to the U.N. Human Rights Commission on Thursday, March 2, while Russia’s Ryabkov will appear in person on the same day.
war crimes investigation
The council has no shortage of other pressing human rights issues to address, with the situations in Iran, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Syria and Israel on the agenda.
Guterres warned on Monday that the conflict in Ukraine was just one example of how human rights around the world are “under attack from all sides.”
“Some governments have cut it. Others have used a wrecking ball,” he said, noting that the astounding progress made in human rights and development over the past century had “regressed backwards”.
A long list of resolutions will be voted on before the UN rights conference is scheduled to close on April 4.
A key resolution will be on expanding a high-level investigation into crimes committed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion.
The so-called Commission of Inquiry (COI) has determined that Russia is committing war crimes on a “large scale” in Ukraine. The committee will submit a comprehensive report to the Security Council in late March.
During the meeting, nearly 50 countries signed a joint statement praising the work of the COI and others for ensuring accountability for crimes committed in Ukraine.
During that event, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, speaking via video link, also called for an extension of the investigation.
Russians, he lamented, “had a sense of impunity. We have to put an end to that illusion.”