53nd session of the Human Rights Council
Enhanced interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Summary Executions (26/6/2023)
Joint statement
Mr. President,
I deliver this statement on behalf of 35 countries, in order to express our deep collective concern about the findings published by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights last month. The report states that in March 2022 over 500 civilians were killed in the village of Moura, in central Mali, by elements of the Malian armed forces, with support from, and, I quote, “foreign military personnel”. Hidden behind this label lies the Wagner Group, whose presence in Mali is well-known and has been confirmed by Russian authorities, and which has contributed to continued instability and a rise in human rights violations both in Mali and in other areas of conflict.
Mr President, this report provides harrowing details of summary executions, sexual and gender-based violence, torture and other ill-treatment, backed up by extensive evidence. This is despite the Malian authorities’ refusal to allow UN access to the site of the most serious reported atrocity committed in Mali in a decade. The report concluded that these acts could amount to war crimes and, depending on the circumstances, crimes against humanity. These cannot go unanswered and perpetrators must be held to account. The Malian authorities must investigate these allegations and all other reports of human rights violations and abuses regardless of the actors allegedly involved, fully, transparently, impartially and independently, and urgently implement the recommendations of this report to ensure, that both their own forces and foreign military personnel fully comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law. We call on the UN High Commissioner and the international community to continue to raise this matter with the Malian authorities, and for Malian authorities to ensure full protection of witnesses and human rights defenders.
I thank you.
Co-signatories:
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czechia
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- United States of America