GENEVA, March 4. /TASS/. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is ignoring Russia’s reports about the disregard of law in Ukraine and infringement on the rights of Russian-speakers in Europe but willingly accepts flagrantly false materials about Russia, Russia’s delegation to the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council said.
"The OHCHR continues ignoring data on the outrage in Ukraine, the use of torture and extrajudicial murders of civilians and prisoners of war, persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, shelling attacks on civilians facilities in Donbass and other Russian cities, Russophobia, infringement of Russian nationals’ and Russian speakers’ rights in Europe reported by the Russian side," Yevgeny Viktorov, a member of the delegation, said at the session. "But there is no shortage of explicitly false materials dedicated to our country."
According to the Russian diplomat, such a position looks especially hypocritical in the context of the January 31 ruling of the UN International Court of Justice, which turned down many accusations against Russia and "as a matter of fact, disavowed the OHCHR’s anti-Russian reports that repeated Ukraine-and the West-fabricated allegations."
"We point to the selective nature of the high commissioner and his office’s reports and statement," Viktorov went on. Most of them "are written in accordance with the guidelines of one group of countries, which proclaimed themselves as beacons of democracy and human rights." He said, adding that "biased reports unsanctioned by the Council" are being issued amid the liquidity crisis, when the OHCHR lacks funds for its mandatory activity.
In such an environment, the OHCHR "is demonstratively turning a blind eye on the situation in countries of the collective West, where the right of indigenous peoples, national and language minorities are infringed upon, the rhetoric of hatred and neo-Nazi ideology are flourishing, alternative points of view are hushed, journalists, opposition and public activists are persecuted," he stressed.
"We once again call on the UN Hight Commissioner for Human Rights to finally give an objective assessment of the situation in the world to be able not to lose what has remained of confidence in him," the Russian diplomat added.
The 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council is being held in Geneva from February 26 though April 5. Russia is not a member of the Council but is taking an active part in its sessions.