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.
