The Human Rights Council of the UN today approved a resolution establishing a commission of experts to investigate the human rights violations perpetrated by Russia in its aggression against Ukrainewhich according to Kiev constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The resolution of the Council, made up of 47 countries, was approved with 32 votes in favor, 13 abstentions (including those of China, Cuba and Venezuela) and only two votes against (Russia itself and Eritrea).
“We know who the war criminals are and who their supreme boss is,” assured the ambassador of Ukraine before the UN in Geneva, Eugenia Filipenko, who stressed that holding those responsible for abuse to account “is the only way to ensure that it is not repeated anywhere in the world”.
In the debate prior to the vote, which began on Thursday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, accused Russia of attacking civilian targets, including schools, hospitals and residential areas, and causing an exodus of more than two million internally displaced persons and refugees.
The three experts will be appointed by the President of the Council (currently the Argentine ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Federico Villegas) and will report on the first results of their research at the 51st session of this body, scheduled for the last third of this year.
One of the missions of commission will be to “identify to the extent possible which individuals or entities have been responsible for violations of human rights abuses” in Ukrainein order to ensure that they are accountable.
Their investigations will be based on interviews, testimonies of victims, forensic materials and others, according to the text of the approved resolution.
It also condemns “in the strongest possible terms” the human rights violations committed by Russia in its aggression against Ukraine and calls for “a rapid and verifiable withdrawal of Russian troops throughout the territory of Ukraine“, including its territorial waters.
It also calls for unhindered access to Ukraine by humanitarian agencies.
