As he had announced, Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s new Commissioner for Human Rights, devoted his first visit to Ukraine, which is facing an “existential threat” that represents “at the same time the supreme challenge for the entire values-based human rights system on our continent”.
He visited Ukraine from 23 to 25 April and published his report on 26 April.
The Commissioner paid particular attention to the situation of children, those who have been displaced to Russia and Belarus, those living in Russian-occupied territories and those living in regions controlled by the Ukrainian government.
With regard to this last group, he welcomed the “high-level commitment” to avoiding the institutionalisation of children and the attention given to setting up a juvenile justice system.
He also stressed the urgent need to rebuild Ukrainian infrastructure, in particular, to enable every child to go to school.
On this point, which the Commissioner describes as an “immediate concern”, he calls on the international community to “urgently step up its efforts”.
The scale of the serious human rights attacks in the territories under Russian occupation is “of great concern” to the Commissioner.
He discusses the fate of the Crimean Tatars, violations of freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and reports allegations of torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians held by the Russian Federation.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/bzp (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)