UNGA third committee supports Crimean resolution despite direct threats from Russians – Kyslytsia
The third committee of the UN General Assembly at a meeting on Thursday supported a draft resolution on the situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied Crimea, the Mission of Ukraine to the UN reports.
"The third committee of the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the protection of human rights in Crimea under the conditions of the Russian occupation. There were 67 affirmative votes, while 23 were against," the mission said on Twitter.
In turn, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Serhiy Kyslytsia, who introduced the draft resolution at a meeting of the Third Committee, said that during the discussion one of the Russian diplomats expressed threats against representatives of those countries that would support that document.
"Just now, a Russian diplomat at the 3rd Committee of the UN General Assembly has not only called the information on the basis of the Crimean resolution "nonsense," and I recall that this is, including the report of the UN Secretary General and OHCHR, but also dared to express direct threats to UN members: "vote for resolution is an encroachment on the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation," Kyslytsia wrote on his Twitter account.
The main provisions of the resolution supported by the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly are:
- Condemnation of mass detentions of activists and human rights defenders on the basis of charges of supporting terrorism;
- A call to end the persecution and release those detained for expressing their own thoughts, including before the occupation;
- Condemnation of the practice of conscription of men in the Russian Armed Forces and the criminal prosecution of those who evade military service in the army of the occupying country;
- The requirement to immediately release all illegally detained citizens of Ukraine and ensure their unhindered return to their homeland;
- A call to the international community to continue, within the framework of international advocacy, the condemnation of violations of the Russian Federation of human rights in Crimea, both at the bilateral and multilateral levels.
This resolution will enter into force after its adoption by the UN General Assembly.
