Madam Chairperson,

The delegation of Ukraine welcomes to the Permanent Council Secretary General of the Council of Europe H.E. Marija Pejčinović Burić and thanks her for the statement.

We would like to express our full support for the continuous cooperation and coordination between the OSCE and the Council of Europe that is based on the promotion of common democratic values and principles. We find such exchange of good practices, information and experience to be useful and constructive.

Moreover, the positive outcomes of this cooperation can also be observed in Ukraine where the Council of Europe and the OSCE Project Coordinator effectively implement their projects and initiatives aimed at supporting the Ukrainian Government in the maintenance of human rights and the rule of law as well as good governance and democratization.

Accordingly, we believe that the cooperation between the two Organizations should be strengthened in order to find most effective ways to achieve lasting peace and security in our region.

Ukraine welcomes the existing enhanced cooperation between the two Organizations in different areas of protecting democratic rights and freedoms. At the same time, we would like to see more active engagement of the Council of Europe in highlighting and reporting violations of these rights and freedoms by its own member-states.

Madam Chairperson,

Since 2014, the temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation territories of Crimea and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions have been turned into lawless areas where Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars are persecuted just because of their ethnic identities.

Bearing in mind that significant violations of the core international norms and principles are exercised by a member of both Organizations, we understand the challenges the Council of Europe as well as the OSCE are facing.

Getting Russia back to PACE in 2019 was viewed as a way to engage Moscow in a meaningful dialogue and constructive cooperation on human rights issues. However, this decision has not led to any positive changes with regard to the situation both in Russia and parts of the Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied by Russia.

Russian aggression continues and the situation with human rights in temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine is further seriously deteriorating: illegal detentions, arrests, enforced disappearances, deportations, torture as well as ethnic and linguistic persecutions.

The occupation authorities in Crimea have gone even further by depriving Ukrainians of their right to own land and by naming the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people an extremist organization. These facts testify to Russia’s unwillingness to abandon its illegal and aggressive policy towards Ukraine.

We are concerned that as Russia is preparing for September parliamentary and local elections, the overall repression campaign is going to intensify.

In this context Ukraine welcomes the adoption on 11 May 2021 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe decision on “Human rights situation in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine)”, which strengthens the policy of the international community on non-recognition of Russia’s attempt to annex Crimea.

Madam Secretary General,

The Council of Ministers’ appeal to the CoE Secretary General to report on a regular basis on the human rights situation in Crimea, using all available sources of information, contained in the above-mentioned decision is another important international instrument that should be used in the most effective way. We encourage the Council of Europe to promote deeper engagement of the monitoring mechanisms, including the Commissioner for Human Rights, in addressing degradation of human rights under the Russian occupation.

We strongly believe that the regular monitoring of the human rights situation in Crimea by the Council of Europe along with the remote monitoring of the peninsula by the OSCE SMM will contribute to eventual de-occupation of the Ukrainian Crimea.

From our side, let me assure you that Ukraine strongly supports you in implementing this decision and is ready to provide all necessary information to this end.

We also call on the Council of Europe to actively engage in protecting, through monitoring and reporting, human rights in the non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions as the situation there is hardly less alarming. This situation is exacerbated by restrictions on freedom of movement and by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this regard, we stress that human rights are the first victims of aggression and cannot be dealt with in isolation from the concept of democratic security on the continent.

We appeal to the authority and existing mechanisms of the Council of Europe as one of the fundamental human rights organizations to protect the democratic rights and freedoms of Ukrainian citizens in the temporarily occupied territories.

In conclusion, let me thank once again H.E. Marija Pejčinović Burić for her today’s statement and reiterate Ukraine’s full dedication to the strong democratic institutions and promotion of human rights.

I thank you, Madam Chairperson.