UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : HRC 53: Resolution debate and vote on Ukraine

Good afternoon, colleagues, excellencies, ladies, gentlemen.

The 30th, 38th meeting of the 53rd session of the United Council is now open and we will continue to take action on draught resolutions.

And the remaining text we have is draught proposal L1, cooperation with an assistance to Ukraine in the field of human rights.

This is the agenda item 10 and let me give the floor to Ukraine to introduce the text.

You have the floor.

Mr.

President, it's my honour to introduce to this Council, under Agenda item 10, the draught resolution cooperation with an assistance to Ukraine in the field of human rights as contained in the document A slash HRC slash 53 slash L1.

This draught is a follow up to the previous five Human Rights Council resolutions under the same title.

The proposed changes are purely technical in nature.

It's main objective is to continue the practise of regular reports and oral updates by the **** Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation in Ukraine, based on the findings of the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and discussions of those findings through interactive dialogues.

Today the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine monitoring on the ground and its regular presenting to the Council, evidence based reports about human rights violations stemming from Russia's aggression and temporary occupation of Crimea and parts of Donbas is even more important.

Only yesterday we met here in this room to hear and discuss the oral updates of the OHCHR on the detention of civilians and the UN Secretary General's midterm report on the situation with human rights in Crimea.

You could all see by yourself how crucial it was for the Council to remain seized of the matter.

The **** Commissioner in his intervention confirmed that right now more than ever, Ukraine needs the assistance in strengthening its capacities of national institutions and social protection services to ensure accountability and remedy processes for the victims of conflict related violence.

Besides monitoring and reporting, the OHCHR provides Ukraine with legal analysis and recommendations in different areas, which gives my country practical tools to make a difference on the ground for the people who continue to suffer from human rights abuses in the situation of aggression and occupation.

And this resolution provides Ukraine with instruments which could further consolidate international assistance and cooperation in order to support the Government of Ukraine in addressing human rights challenges.

Under these extraordinary circumstances, I would like to express hope that the draught put forward by the country concerned, which is interested in receiving this technical assistance and for this purpose is requesting regular discussions of the human rights situation, will be adopted by consensus.

My delegation asked the members of the Council to support this document.

I thank you.

Thank you.

Now let me inform you that there are four additional Co sponsors and let me open the floor for general comments.

United States, please.

Thank you, Mr.

President, the United States is proud to support this resolution, which simply and rightly keeps objective reporting on Ukraine from the **** Commissioner on the Council's agenda.

Supporting this technical Item 10 resolution should not be controversial, and we hope to see it adopted by consensus even as evidence of war crimes mounts.

Ukraine has taken a modest approach in drafting this resolution, asking simply that the **** Commissioner continues to be heard by the Council so that the facts may speak for themselves.

The critical work of the **** Commissioner's human Rights monitoring mission in Ukraine goes back almost a decade to Russia's initial invasion.

It's work documenting Russia's abuses provided a prescient forewarning of the tactics we have seen since its full scale invasion last year.

Today, as Russia continues its relentless attacks and human rights abuses across the territory of Ukraine, this reporting is as important as ever.

It is worth acknowledging that Ukraine is leading this resolution, even though some of the **** Commissioners reporting is critical of actions taken by Ukraine's forces and authorities.

We commend the Government of Ukraine for being open to scrutiny and technical advice from OHCHR, even while fighting for its very survival.

Regrettably, Russia, by contrast, has not provided access nor demonstrated any openness to scrutiny.

We believe supporting this resolution should be a straightforward step for all delegations to take.

In fact, we see no reason why it shouldn't be adopted by consensus.

We should all want to hear what the **** Commissioner has to say about the human rights situation in Ukraine.

We thank Ukraine's delegation for leading this resolution and we are proud to Co sponsor along with countries from across regions.

We are all members of this Council to join us in supporting this resolution.

I thank you.

Thank you.

Now let me invite Georgia.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Georgia strongly supports Ukraine's initiative on cooperation and assistance aiming at upholding human rights on all its territory.

Let me begin by again expressing our deep concern over the ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine, a war born out of Russia's actions, which has led to a severe humanitarian situation.

It has resulted A tragical less of 10s of thousands of lives and left nearly the half of the population in pressing need of humanitarian aid.

The recent findings of the reports of the Office of the **** Commissioner for Human Rights reflect the ongoing human rights violations committed by Russian authorities, especially against persons living in areas of eastern part of the country not controlled by the Government of Ukraine and the Temporarily Occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

In the wake of this and settling reality, we emphasise the critical need for the OHR and other international human rights mechanism to secure immediate, safe and unimpeded access to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

We once again urge Russia to uphold its obligations under the international Human Rights Law.

We reiterate our call to withdraw all its forces from the territory of Ukraine and to provide international human rights and humanitarian institutions with unhindered, immediate and safe access to persons transferred from the conflict affected area of Ukraine and held on the territory of Russia or areas controlled or temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation.

Here, with reiterate Georgia's unwavering support to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders, including its territorial waters, we call on all members of the Council to support Ukraine by adopting this important resolution by consensus and if voted, we urge all members of the Council to vote in favour.

Thank you, Mr.

President, Thank you.

Now let me invite Eritrea microphone.

Please start again.

Mr.

President, my delegation takes the floor to request a vote on draught resolution.

Cooperation with assistance to Ukraine in the fields of human rights, technical assistance and capacity building aiming at addressing institutional, organisational and resource capabilities and developments are of strategic importance and I welcome initiative in line to challenge faced in national development.

In this regard, institution capacity building through human rights relevant agendas is appropriate and enjoys the support of Eritrea.

Nevertheless, states that request or promote technical assistance and capacity building should adhere to the sacred aim and spirit of the agenda and in light to relevant human rights cancer resolutions and principles.

So President, the draught resolution at hand, however, fails to include reference to an internal challenge in human rights as well as humanitarian situation in Ukraine, including the plight of ethnic and linguistic minorities and specifically Russian speaking population of the country.

The present draught resolution further contains ulterior political intents including those with territorial implications that if necessary and relevant, could be best handled through other channels and platforms.

Eritrea strongly opposes such use of human rights platforms and agendas as a cover and pretext for other ulterior motives and politically I'll intent.

Eritrea thus opposes the inclusion of such political intents and their implications in the resolution at hand in the name of technical capacity building and requests for a vote on the resolution and will vote not to demonstrate non politicised and objective stance and invite other members of the Council to do the same.

I thank you, thank you Belgium, please Mr.

President, the mixed Premier.

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Thank you, United Kingdom.

Mr.

President, we're going to be, first of all, thank our Ukrainian colleagues for presenting the solution.

We really commend the approach that they have taken in tablings, such a short technical text, and we appreciate how difficult that must have been to show such restraint.

I can put in those terms, given the horrific realities, daily realities of the Russian aggression against their nation.

We are, Mr.

President, a little bit dismayed that we must once again vote on a item 10 resolution, a resolution that seeks to promote human rights in the country concerned, a country that openly collaborates and cooperates with the Office of the **** Commissioner with full dialogue and fruitful cooperation, unlike, I should add, the Russian aggressors in this war who continue to deny even the most basic access to the United Nations.

There is really no reason that this text should need to be voted upon or indeed that any member of this Council should do anything other than vote enthusiastically in its favour.

All states in this Chamber, Mr.

President, are signatories to the UN Charter.

As far as I'm as aware.

This means that all here should support its aims to maintain international peace and security.

All here should be to kind of phrase friends of the Charter.

Yet we have seen blatant disregard of the Charter for over 500 days in Ukraine, 500 days of atrocities, 500 days of growing evidence of war crimes and indeed possible crimes against humanity, all of this since President Putin ordered the full scale invasion of another sovereign state in flagrant disregard, the Charter.

We have nothing but admiration for the work of the **** Commission's team in Ukraine.

They do invaluable work monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation and provide valuable guidance and support to the Ukrainian government.

And let me applaud, as others have done, the way that the Ukrainian government has responded to their suggestions.

This support must be maintained, particularly now as Ukraine is confronted by the horrifying realities of Russia's brutal war.

I urge others to support the very good draught resolution before us.

Thank you, Germany.

Thank you, Mr.

President, Germany Alliance itself with the EU statement and dear colleagues, it should not become a practise to call resolutions under Agenda item 10 that purely request technical cooperation for a vote.

We should not deny Ukraine the possibility to receive support from the Office of the **** Commissioner for Human Rights.

The draught resolution is balanced and has only received technical updates since Ukraine presented the resolution the last time.

And we also would like to thank the delegation of Ukraine for the transparent and constructive way in which negotiations were held.

So why do we no need this resolution?

First, since the full scale war of aggression from Russia against Ukraine, more than 500 days have passed.

Human rights violations are reported on a daily basis.

Particularly in these days, Ukraine and its people benefit from the work of the Office of the **** Commissioner.

Second, more than ever, we need to rely on objective sources of information vis A vis the rapid spread of disinformation.

The human Rights Monitoring missions provides exactly that objective and trustworthy information.

We call on all members of the Council to vote yes on this resolution.

I thank you.

Thank you.

Is there any other request for the floor under this general comments agenda point?

Since this is not the case, let me inform the Council that the Russian Federation doesn't consider itself as a country concerned and therefore will not speak.

There are no Pbis for this resolution and we can start with explanations of votes before the vote.

And I open the floor.

China.

I.

Thank you.

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I know.

So, at the request of the delegation of redraw, the Council will now proceed to a recorded vote on draught Proposal L1 and let me ask the Secretariat to open the voting machine and let me ask you to register your votes.

Please check your votes if they are properly registered and reflected on the screen.

And now let me ask the secretary to close the voting machine and the voting is now closed.

The results of the recorded votes are as follows.

28 in favour, 3 against State, 16 abstentions.

The draught proposal L1 is adopted.

Copies of the results of the vote will shortly be uploaded on the extract.

HRC 53: Resolution debate and vote on Ukraine - 14 July 2023