Baerbock: investigate human rights violations in Ukraine
Created: 03/03/2022, 10:40 am
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens).
© John Macdougall/AFP POOL/dpa
Clear demand from the German Foreign Minister: Annalena Baerbock is asking the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva for a commission of inquiry into Ukraine.
Geneva - Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has called for rapid investigations into Russia's human rights violations in the war in Ukraine.
"Serious human rights violations must be prosecuted," said the Green politician in a pre-recorded video message at the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva on Thursday.
"We urgently need a commission of inquiry into Ukraine to investigate all human rights abuses committed by Russia since the beginning of its military aggression."
When it comes to accountability, a clear position must be taken, said Baerbock.
She called for the mechanisms in this area to be expanded for Belarus, South Sudan, Syria and Myanmar.
Baerbock stressed that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was also an attack on the United Nations Charter.
"This is about nothing less than the most serious violations of human rights: the right to life and the right of the Ukrainian people to determine their own fate." Human rights must also be at the center of political action, as they have come under pressure worldwide.
“Russia's aggression underscores this all too clearly.
We must counter this attack.”
If human rights were denied, "our existence is threatened," Baerbock warned.
She referred her words to the people of Ukraine, but also to the activists of human rights organizations like Memorial in Moscow and to "brave men like Alexei Navalny, whose voices should be silenced".
The minister also mentioned demonstrators taking to the streets in Russia against Putin's war and "all people worldwide who suffer discrimination because of their beliefs".
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Baerbock also advocated listening to the experiences of women - "they are the most vulnerable in conflict and crisis".
The minister announced that Germany wanted to remain a member of the UN Human Rights Council for another three years.
The Federal Government is convinced that “we must all work together to put human rights at the center of our actions.
For the mothers, fathers and children in Ukraine.
For all who suffer.
We have to act now.” dpa
