By Oyintari Ben
After describing evidence of arbitrary arrest, torture, and sexual abuse against civilians in Ukraine published in a report two weeks ago, the UN Human Rights chief urged Russia to comply with humanitarian law on Wednesday.
Between the commencement of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, and May 23, this year, the UN rights monitoring mission in Ukraine recorded the arbitrary detention of almost 900 people and the summary execution of 77 of them.
“Over 90% of detainees held by the Russian Federation whom we were able to interview said they had been subjected to torture and ill-treatment – including sexual violence, in some cases – by Russian security personnel,” said Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“These results are startling. They demand that the Russian Federation take tangible steps to train and ensure that its Russian personnel complies with international human rights and humanitarian law, he said in a speech to the UN Council, the only forum where states come together to defend human rights worldwide.
Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, responded to Turk’s remarks by claiming that the conclusions “understated the crimes of the Ukrainian side.”
He said that the true scope of the atrocities committed by the Ukrainian government and military was concealed.
According to the study, Ukraine granted full access to UN investigators, with the exception of one event, but inmates in Russia were denied access despite repeated requests.
Turk claimed that his office had also noted some transgressions made by Ukraine.
“We also discovered that Ukrainian personnel engaged in torture or ill-treatment, including sexual violence, mostly involving threats, in unofficial places of detention or – to a much lesser extent – in official pre-trial detention facilities,” he stated.
