Ukrainian issues absent in agenda of PACE autumn session - MP Vasylenko
Ukrainian issues are not included in the agenda of the autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said Lesya Vasylenko, member of the permanent delegation of the Verkhovna Rada to PACE, MP of the Holos faction.
"Unfortunately, in the Assembly a fear of being branded 'Russophobes'... prevails over the obligation to protect the principles of international law and human rights recorded in the Convention. This is manifested in the fact that Ukrainian issues are not included in the agenda of the PACE autumn session," Vasylenko wrote on Facebook on Monday.
According to her, the topic of the debate "Political persecution of indigenous peoples in Crimea by the Russian Federation", proposed by the Ukrainian delegation, did not receive support at the bureau, where these topics are approved.
"They explain it that literally in June a resolution on the rights of the Crimean Tatar people was adopted," Vasylenko said.
The MP also noted that "there is a nuance with the choice of a judge from Ukraine to the ECHR."
"Although the delegates have an understanding that the judge from Ukraine should be changed for a long time (two years ago), but they do not really want to discuss the situation in political groups," said the member of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE.
Vasylenko also said that the session would discuss the situation in Afghanistan, the migration crisis in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland due to the situation in Belarus, and the crisis in the Western Balkans.
The autumn session of the PACE opened in Strasbourg (France) on Monday.