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Russian delegation to UN Human Rights Council slams US and EU over human rights violations

Moscow also believes that there is a need "to fix geographical distortions" in the UN Human Rights Council’s work
Opening of the 33rd session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland EPA/SALVATORE DI NOLFI
Opening of the 33rd session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland
© EPA/SALVATORE DI NOLFI

GENEVA, September 20. /TASS/. At the current session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Russian delegation has castigated the US and EU member states over human rights violations in their respective countries. The delegation members have also drawn attention to the EU’s connivance with the Baltic states that allow parades dedicated to Waffen SS veterans and neo-Nazis.

"We would like to draw the Council’s attention to the continuing systemic problems concerning human rights in the US," the Russian delegation member Irina Anichina said during the session. According to her, this refers to indefinite detentions without trial, impunity for the perpetrators of torture, abductions of foreign nationals, racial profiling and police brutality prevalent in US law enforcement agencies. The economic and social gaps have been increasing, the unemployment rate has grown by 2.5 times over the last five years, there is no unified mandatory health insurance system, one-fifth of children are brought up by families living below the poverty line, and underage child labor is utilized in the agricultural sector.

"The situation in the EU member states is no better," Anichina went on to say focusing on the growth of ethnic and religious intolerance, xenophobic political rhetoric and discrimination in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France in particular. The Russian delegation members believe that "the EU’s long-term connivance with the Baltic states deserves the strongest condemnation given that these countries allow parades of Waffen SS veterans and neo-Nazis, the desecration of memorials to the victims of the Holocaust and to the soldiers who fought against fascism, while allowing festivals of Nazi music in Poland under the umbrella of the pro-Fascist organization ‘Blood and Honor’.

Anichina concluded that child protection issues related to the child services’ activities caused serious concern. In particular, human rights organizations in the Netherlands, France and Norway, that is not a EU member, point to the one-sided, slanted analysis of a situation that leads to unjustified removal of children from their families.

Moscow believes that there is a need "to fix geographical distortions" in the UN Human Rights Council’s work since its resolutions don’t pay enough attention to the human rights issues in the states that position themselves as "mature democracies".