UN's Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine: why is it important?

By Kateryna Dronova (Berkeley, CA)

On April 15, 2014 the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released “Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine”. This document provides a general overview on the problematic issues related to human rights protection is Ukraine and specifically highlights abuses related to Maidan protests and human rights challenges in Crimea. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Alexander Lukashevich hastened to comment that this document “has one-sided, politicized and biased character and give no picture of the real situation in that country” and “was fabricated to fit prearranged conclusions to arrived at which there was no need to visit Ukraine.” Two days later France’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gerard Araud compared Russian behavior towards Ukraine to “fire-setting firefighter.” To clarify the validity of such claims this post suggests taking a closer look at the Report’s content and makes some conclusions on the nature of the document.