Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov’s remarks at the High-Level Segment of the UN Human Rights Council’s 52nd Session, Geneva, March 2, 2023
Mr President,
Ladies and gentlemen,
When adopting the UN Charter, the states stated their commitment “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small.” These fundamental principles made their way from the UN Charter into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted following the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights.
There is a global crisis that is gaining momentum, while the negative effects from the Covid-19 pandemic and natural disasters continue to weigh on the human rights situation and socioeconomic development. Against this backdrop, an urgent effort to combine our efforts and come up with effective measures to revive international cooperation in all spheres constitutes the one and only rational solution. However, certain countries seek to benefit from the current environment and pressure countries that need help into accepting their vision of the human rights situation around the world. By acting this way, these would-be gold standards of democracy show their disdain towards the unique historical, cultural and religious identities of these nations, and are trying to insert them into their rules-based order ideology, which is de facto designed to replace the universally recognised principles and norms of international law.
Imposing unilateral coercive measures, be it individually or collectively, has become a tool for pursuing this policy. It is ordinary people who are the first to suffer from these measures. However, this has never stopped the “historical democracies” before. Instead of seeking to protect human rights at home and around the world, they aim to punish undesirable governments and destabilise sovereign states to suit their momentary agendas and serve their geopolitical interests.
It is the Western countries which are intentionally seeking escalation in the Ukraine crisis by supplying more and more new heavy weapons to Ukraine. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have been making active use of Western weapons to shell residential buildings, schools and hospitals, kill civilians, and destroy civilian infrastructure. All these actions constitute war crimes, international human rights violations, and NATO member states are complicit in these crimes, even though their representatives love using the HRC as a rostrum for their hypocritical sermons on human rights.
Meanwhile, the Kiev regime has been consistent in trampling upon the fundamental human rights and freedoms. In violation of the Constitution of Ukraine and the country’s international obligations, it adopted a series of laws to promote an all-out Ukrainisation effort, including in education, science, culture, media, radio, television, internet, advertising, and services. It is the Russian language that has been subject to the greatest oppression, despite being the mother tongue of millions of people in Ukraine. In December 2022, Ukraine passed its outrageous media law, which was designed to give the government the tools it needs to fight unwanted media professionals. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church faces an existential threat, while its clergy and parish goers suffer from repression. Ukraine has been using so-called Russian aggression and separatism as a pretext for ramping up persecution of the Kiev regime’s political opponents, civil society figures, and activists, including those calling for rebuilding relations with Russia. As of today, Ukraine has banned 17 political parties. Neo-Nazi groups operate openly in Ukraine, and radicals keep the Ukrainian population cowed.
Pandering to Ukrainian neo-Nazism and similar policies in the Baltic countries, where Waffen SS veterans, collaborators and those who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity are glorified as national heroes and members of national liberation movements, is a path towards the revival of the ideology of racial superiority. The aggressive and systematic demolition of monuments to those who liberated Europe and the rest of the world from Nazism and fascism is clear evidence of attempts to rewrite history, condemn the heroism of our forefathers to oblivion and hush up the horrors and crimes of the Second World War.
I would like to remind you that last year the countries that were member of the anti-Hitler coalition for the first time voted in a consolidated manner against the UN General Assembly resolution on combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. This confirmed our disappointing conclusion about the great distance between democracy and the collective West.
Mr President,
Regrettably, attempts are not only being made to destroy monuments and bury our common history, but also living people. Some Baltic countries stubbornly refuse to find solution to the problem of the shameful phenomenon of non-citizens. Members of national, ethnic, religious and language minorities are being discriminated against more and more often in Europe. The governments of some countries openly support Russophobia and call for cancelling Russian culture and preclude the use of the Russian language, including within the private sphere. Censorship in the media, ban on unsuitable television channels and publications, and other methods of persecuting dissent are described as “response to propaganda,” which allegedly has nothing in common with infringement on the freedom of speech. The case in point is the recent hypocritical statements made by Josep Borrell.
Mr President,
The Russian Federation was elected to the UN Human Rights Council in 2020 and worked actively on it until April 2022, when it was suspended from the Council by a non-unanimous UN General Assembly resolution adopted at the initiative of the United States and its allies. That decision was the result of the unprecedented political pressure and economic blackmail used by the collective West against constructively minded countries before the vote at the UN General Assembly.
Nevertheless, Russia continues to actively contribute to the Council’s work in the capacity of observer country. We care about this vital but not ideally functioning UN human rights body.
Despite the unprecedented pressure put on Russia, we intend to participate in the upcoming election to the Council, which are scheduled to take place during the 78th session of the UN General Assembly this autumn.
No matter the circumstances, Russia will consistently uphold the principles of cooperation and constructive dialogue of the Council’s members based on mutual respect in the interests of searching for the best possible solutions to existing human rights problems. We believe that responses to current challenges can only be effective if they are formulated by the international community collectively and take into account, rather than neglect, the interests and approaches of all states and groups of states.
Thank you.
