Moscow was accused of trying to silence opponents in the Kremlin on Monday. On Tuesday, Russia denounced the growing “bias” of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Russian representative Ilya Barmin denounced “the unprecedented rise in politicization and bias” of the High Commission.
“This is evidenced by the mention of our country in yesterday’s statement by the Acting High Commissioner, who ignored the massive human rights violations in Europe, the United States and other countries,” he said. other western countries. Moscow, which left the Council when the UN General Assembly voted for its expulsion a few months ago because of the invasion of Ukraine, nevertheless has observer status and, as such, has a right of reply, like the other countries.
Tensions between Moscow and the United Nations
The Russian representative accused the UN of ignoring evidence “concerning the crimes of the kyiv regime in the Donbass and the atrocities of Ukrainian fighters and foreign mercenaries” and criticized it for not having “the courage” to condemn sending Western weapons to Ukraine.
He also denounced pell-mell the publication at the end of August by the High Commission of the “biased” report on the Chinese region of Xinjiang. On Monday, the UN harshly denounced the human rights situation in Russia. The Acting High Commissioner, Nada Al-Nashif, had in particular criticized the “intimidation” in Russia of which opponents of the war in Ukraine are victims, as well as the various “forms of censorship” in force in the country.
Moscow “takes human rights hostage”
The top UN human rights body in May launched a high-level investigation into violations committed by Russian troops in Ukraine. But there is growing pressure for the Council to also take an interest in human rights violations in Russia and establish a Special Rapporteur’s mandate.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN, Yevheniia Filipenko, told the council on Tuesday that Moscow is “taking human rights hostage to pursue its evil goals”. She praised the work done by the UN to document the “atrocities” committed by Russia in her country, and assured that “continuing to maintain together the pressure on the aggressor state should be the only option for all of us”.