GENEVA, June 16. /TASS/. At the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), the Russian delegation criticized the situation regarding human rights and freedoms in the United States, Ukraine and several EU member states.
Speaking at the session on Thursday, Russian delegation member Yevgeny Ustinov called on the HRC to pay attention to that issue and "overcome geographical imbalance" in its work.
"The Russian delegation is convinced that it’s high time that the HRC started fixing this imbalance in its work and paid attention to the above-mentioned violations of human rights," he said, adding that the council’s work currently centers primarily around the problems of developing nations.
"The United States abducts people worldwide, tries to impose its laws on other states and violates the right to privacy on a global scale," the Russian diplomat continued, describing the Guantanamo Prison as "a true shame for a country, whose representatives here speak melodramatically of their messiah-like role in the issues of human rights."
Ustinov also pointed at growing xenophobic sentiments in certain EU countries. "Migrants continue to be exploited, including for sexual purposes. Children and teenagers are dragged into this criminal activity," he said, naming Sweden, Denmark and the United Kingdom among the countries with "high levels of sexual violence and problems with bringing to justice those guilty of such crimes."
The diplomat also mentioned "blatant violations of minority rights in Baltic states" that come "against the background of Russophobic sentiments deliberately fuelled by the authorities." In Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland "dissenting views are opressed, while media, bloggers and human rights activists face persecution for ideological motives," he added.
Ustinov also spoke of "rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in Ukraine", adding that "the authorities of this country suppress the freedom of speech, terrorize and physically exterminate the opposition and human rights activists, abet Neo-Nazi and xenophobic ideology, introduce draconian limits on the use of the Internet and have been waging a three-year-long war against their own citizens in the southeast of the country.".