The Russian delegation of 36 experts in the field of jurisprudence and human rights failed to convince the UN Monitoring Committee that the leadership of the Russian Federation respects the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of racial discrimination.
Russia was one of six states parties to the convention, whose activities were reviewed by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) during the session that ended on Friday.
The Committee, which monitors the implementation of the convention by participating States, expressed deep concern over “the gross violations of human rights committed during the ongoing armed conflict by the armed forces of the Russian Federation and private military companies against persons protected by the convention, in Ukrainians of particular ethnicity.
Mehrdad Payandeh, a member of the committee, said that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the committee has received reports of large-scale human rights violations and abuses, including ” cases and practices of excessive use of force, murder, extrajudicial and summary executions, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence” attributed to the Russian Federation.
The Committee also received information on the forced expulsion to Russia of residents, in particular children, of the occupied territories of Ukraine, which are de facto under the control of the Russian Federation.
“We have considered these issues,” Payandeh said, adding that the Russian Federation did not provide any additional information on these issues. “We expressed our concern in our concluding observations and recommended that the state party (of the convention) investigate and end this practice as it is in violation of the convention.”
Recall that in mid-April, the Ukrainian government leadership reported that more than 19,384 children had been deported to Russia, and the fate of several thousand more remained unknown. The UN and human rights organizations report that many children have been given up for adoption by Russian families.
We also recall that on March 17, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Government Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.
The Committee also accused the Russian Federation of harming the cultural heritage of the Crimean Tatars, of imposing restrictions on the political and civil rights of the Crimean Tatars, as well as of harassing, threatening and inciting the murder of human rights defenders. man, activists, lawyers and journalists.
The members of the Committee called on the Russian authorities to carry out an impartial investigation into all documented cases of human rights violations mentioned in the concluding observations, as well as to put an end to the practice of forced mobilization and conscription of representatives of Crimean Tatars and indigenous peoples of Crimea and during the ongoing war against Ukraine.
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