News item | 10-12-2024 | 16:48
The Ukrainian population has been dealing with Russian aggression for almost three years. Ukrainian civilians have been killed, injured, tortured, raped and kidnapped. Entire residential areas, hospitals and important infrastructure have been destroyed. The Netherlands wants the perpetrators to be held responsible for these crimes and attaches great importance to justice. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) makes a crucial contribution to this.
Enlarge image
Today, on International Human Rights Day, we celebrate important freedoms that apply to all people. For example, that you can walk safely on the street, work and go to school. However, this is not self-evident everywhere. Human rights are under pressure in more and more countries. For example in Ukraine, where the population faces human rights violations on a daily basis.
“The stories are sickening,” said Danielle Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. ‘We spoke to people who have been tortured, abused and sexually abused. Citizens are also increasingly becoming victims of hover bombs and drones. We also see indoctrination in schools in the occupied territories. Children who are not allowed to speak Ukrainian, are required to follow the Russian curriculum and are required to attend military training.”
UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine
HRMMU reports on the human rights situation in Ukraine. This UN mission aims to strengthen and protect human rights in Ukraine and ensure that perpetrators of human rights violations are held accountable.
The Netherlands stands for a world in which human rights are respected and criminals are punished for their actions. Only then can people live in peace and security. The Netherlands therefore supports the work of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU). Today, Erica Schouten, special envoy for Ukraine, announced that the Netherlands will make €8 million available for the mission over the next two years.
“HRMMU’s investigative work is extremely important to achieve justice for Ukraine,” Schouten explains. ‘Their work is independent, accurate, factual and reliable and the results are used in national and international investigations into violations of human rights and international law. HRMMU makes a crucial contribution to finding the truth and preventing impunity.’
Worrying trend
Since the large-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and more than 20,000 injured. Entire residential areas and villages have been destroyed and hospitals, infrastructure and schools are in ruins. Large-scale attacks on power plants also cause power outages and limited access to water, heating and the internet.
Over the past year, HRMMU also saw a worrying increase in attacks on Ukrainian civilians, Bell said. ‘This year the number of civilian casualties has increased by 30%. In September we saw one of the highest numbers of casualties since the summer of 2022. A disturbing trend, for example, is the use of new weapons and weapons that are used in other, more destructive ways. This causes the number of civilians who are injured to increase enormously.’
The situation in prisons in the occupied territories and in Russia is also extremely worrying, Bell continues. ‘We have spoken to prisoners of war who were beaten with metal rods. They showed us the bones they had broken and the scars where they had been bitten by dogs or burned by a cigarette. Every person we speak to contributes to the image we have of systematic atrocities suffered by Ukrainians in Russian captivity.”
Testimony
HRMMU teams are present in Ukraine to document these types of human rights violations and violations of humanitarian law of war. The reports can then be used as evidence in legal cases and provide the international community with reliable insight into the human rights situation in Ukraine.
HRMMU has already carried out more than three hundred missions this year, more than a hundred of which were in the area in and around the front line. “We speak to people at home and talk about the daily reality of the war,” Bell explains. This way we can make public the impact this terrible conflict has on the population on a daily basis.’
The work of the HRMMU is therefore not just about collecting statistics and evidence, Schouten adds. ‘It’s about the stories behind these figures. These are the stories that need to be heard. We owe that to all victims and their families. These crimes must be documented, because justice is also about affirmation: “This is what happened.” And we, the international community, must not look away from that.’
Enlarge image
Support for justice in Ukraine
The Netherlands actively supports Ukraine in its efforts to obtain justice for war crimes. Since the start of the Russian war, the Netherlands has already released more than €105 million for this purpose. The Netherlands also supports investigations into international crimes by the International Criminal Court and the Ukrainian Public Prosecution Service and is committed to international coordination and information sharing. For example, through the Dialogue Group on Accountability for Ukraine.
The Netherlands also houses the Damage Register for Ukraine and the International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression in The Hague. The Netherlands also supports the establishment of an aggression tribunal and has offered to be a host country for this.