The UN admitted on Wednesday that the number of civilian casualties since the start of the war in Ukraine far exceeds the 9,000 documented casualties, and deplores the lack of accountability for systematic human rights violations by Russian forces.
In a debate on the human rights situation in Ukraine and in the occupied territory of the Crimean peninsula, held this Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland, at the 53rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, the UN High Commissioner for human rights, noting that “more than 9,000 civilians, including more than 500 children, have been killed since the start of the war, on February 24, 2022”, but “it is very likely that the real numbers are much higher”.
Afterwards, Volker Turk complained about the “lack of accountability for the violations and abuses committed in this conflict”, many of which are not even documented.
“I am not aware of any ongoing investigations by the Russian Federation into arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture or ill-treatment against civilians by its forces in Ukraine,” he said.
Turk pointed out that “the Russian Federation has not given access to detention centers” to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission, saying it was nevertheless possible to interview 178 detainees held by Russian authorities after they were released, and “more than 90% claimed to have been subjected to torture and ill-treatment, in some cases including sexual assault, by Russian security personnel.”
In the same intervention, Volker Turk argued that not only was there documented “the summary execution of 77 civilians while they were arbitrarily detained by the Russian Federation”, there were also “several cases documented suggesting that detained civilians were used by the Russian armed forces as ‘shield people’ to make certain zones immune to military attacks”.
In the Crimean peninsula and in the “temporarily occupied” areas of Ukraine by Russian troops, “comprising violations of the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, peaceful assembly and association, including new sanctions for the public expression of opinions by the Russian armed forces discredit, and further deterioration of the working environment for human rights defenders,” he continued.
“Teachers were pressured to actively support the Russian invasion and encourage positive attitudes in children,” he illustrated.
The high commissioner also said he was “deeply concerned” that the Russian parliament had recently passed a federal law “that might exempt from criminal responsibility perpetrators of international crimes committed in the occupied territories of Ukraine”.
“International law prohibits the granting of such amnesty in connection with serious violations of international humanitarian law or gross violations of international human rights law,” he recalled.
Ukrainian First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova intervened via video conference and confirmed that the real number of civilian casualties is certainly much higher than the official figures, saying it was “unimaginable how many children were abducted or orphaned were left behind.” as a result of Russian military aggression.
“Unfortunately, officially documented atrocities represent only a small fraction of the crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine,” said the Ukrainian minister, who also pointed out that “international humanitarian organizations have been systematically denied access to the territories temporarily occupied by Russia.” , including the centers of detention.
The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory, launched on February 24 last year, plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
Source: DN
