UK’s Engaging Discourse with High Commissioner on Ukraine’s Human Rights Landscape

Thank you, Mr. President,

I would like to start by expressing my gratitude to you, Deputy High Commissioner and your Office, for your persistent efforts to highlight human rights in Ukraine nearly three years after the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Your briefing today serves as a stark reminder of the brutal nature of that invasion. In recent months, as you have detailed, we have witnessed hundreds of civilian fatalities including healthcare workers and emergency responders. Systematic assaults on energy infrastructure. Forced expulsions. And further grim indications of systematic and systemic torture – along with additional executions – of Ukrainian combatants.

Routine maltreatment that is enabled by Russian state institutions, with the complete awareness of facility supervisors. Severe beatings, electric shocks, prolonged stress positions, and mock executions have become commonplace. Sexual violence during detention is widespread. Reports of rape, castration, and sexual humiliation have all surfaced.

The torture of Ukrainian captives is not merely rampant. It is Russian State policy, in outright contravention of the Geneva Conventions. All of this comes from a permanent member of the UN Security Council, which claims to be a major global power.

Deputy High Commissioner,

We are now three years into this invasion. Three years deep into the atrocities. When will Russia acknowledge its commitments to International Law and put an end to this pointless conflict?

Thank you and Slava Ukraine.