GENEVA, September 14. /TASS/. The Russian delegation will work constructively on all tracks at the 45th session of the Human Rights Council that opens in Geneva on Monday, seeking cooperation and dialogue based on mutual respect among the partners, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office and Other International Organizations in Geneva Gennady Gatilov told TASS.
"The session is expected to be busy," the diplomat stressed. "A number of mandates of the Council’s special procedures will be extended, including on hazardous waste, individual coercive measures, the right to the truth as well as on enforced disappearances," he specified. "We expect difficult discussion on the situation in certain countries, including Venezuela, Yemen, Syria and Belarus," Gatilov said.
"Our fundamental stance remains unchanged," he stressed. "During the session, we will work constructively along all trajectories, seeking from our partners cooperation and dialogue based on mutual respect. We will speak out resolutely against attempts to politicize the Human Rights Council, to bring in the topics that have nothing to do with the international agenda on the human rights track," he said.
"We are not planning for now to submit draft resolutions on our own behalf at the upcoming session," the envoy went on to say. "However, we will act as co-authors of a number of initiatives on the themes that Russia traditionally supports," he stressed. These are resolutions on action against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance, denunciation of individual sanctions from the point of view of their negative effect on human rights. The Russian delegation will "actively contribute to advancing initiatives in the sphere of economic, social and cultural rights, as well as the right to development," he added.
He also stressed certain issues in the functioning of UN human rights institutions that must be addressed. "These are certain issues in the activity of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, financial situation in the UN human rights dimension and the activity of special procedures that don’t quite fit within the frameworks approved by the collective bodies," he explained. Among other concerns Gatilov listed the activity of the special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, violating the mandate, as well as "the absence of results in the activity of the special rapporteur charged with protecting the right to privacy". "We will specifically focus on these issues," the diplomat summed up.