STATEMENT
Human Rights Council 51st Session.
Item 10 – Interactive dialogue with the High Commissioner on the oral update on Ukraine.
Statement delivered by Ambassador Tine Mørch Smith, Permanent Representative of Norway.
Check against delivery
4 October 2022.
President,
We thank the acting High Commissioner for her report. The content is deeply disturbing.
In territories liberated from Russian occupation OHCHR has documented the killing of civilians by Russian armed forces. Men, women and children have been executed, tortured or unlawfully detained, and a large number have disappeared. Among the enforced disappearances there are public officials, journalists and civil society activists, who appear to have been deliberately targeted.
There are horrific accounts of Russia’s use of conflict-related sexual violence, and the High Commissioner’s report confirms several cases. This seems to be used as a tactic of war. Norway condemns all use of sexual violence.
Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups have sent civilians to so-called “filtration camps”, where they become victims of torture, ill-treatment and sometimes enforced disappearance. This brutal practice must stop. Norway calls on Russia and affiliated armed groups to immediately release all civilians subjected to arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance.
Russia must give human rights and humanitarian organisations full access to persons who have been transferred to Russia or areas under Russian occupation.
Acting High Commissioner, how can the UN get information on, and access to, civilians evacuated to Russia or areas under Russian control, often against their will?
Thank you.