MOSCOW, November 8. /TASS/. Russian Human Rights Ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova pointed out the double standards of Western countries concerning human rights on Thursday during the international panel conference "Challenges of protecting human rights in the Eurasian area: good practice exchange amongst ombudsmen".
"Today, we witness the erosion of an international system for the protection of rights, distortion of its basic principles, appearance of double standards in estimating certain events, politicization of the human rights issue, which are so damaging to the protection of human dignity," Moskalkova said.
She noted that mass statelessness has persisted in Western countries for dozens of years. "A whole union of countries thinks that it has the right to discriminate the territory’s population on the basis of their place of residence due to political motives. The people of this territory have expressed their will to choose their historic path and become part of another state on the national referendum in accordance with the procedure established by international norms and principles," the ombudsperson said, commenting on the double standards in the human rights area.
Moskalkova called on the participants of the conference to "unite on the basis of shared commitment to universal democratic values, which includes ensuring rights and freedoms." "The creation of the Eurasian Alliance of Ombudspersons last year served as the first step in this direction. It helped us unite our efforts and find new ways to fight for the restoration of violated rights," she stated.
The international conference "Challenges of protecting human rights in the Eurasian area: good practice exchange amongst ombudsmen" is held in Moscow for the second time. This year’s conference is devoted to the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 25th anniversary of the Russian Constitution. According to Moskalkova, representatives from 16 countries are taking part in the conference.