Statement by the delegation of Ukraine at a UNGA Third Commitee meeting on elimination of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia

Mr. Chair,

The Delegation of Ukraine aligns itself with the statement delivered by the Delegation of the European Union and would like to make a number of comments in its national capacity.

Ukraine is a Party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Ukrainian legislation guarantees a full respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms and ensures equality in political, economic, social, cultural, and other spheres of public life for all citizens without distinction of their race, color, national or ethnic origin.

During the latest session of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in August 2016, the Ukrainian delegation presented two periodic reports on the implementation by our State of the International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Since the temporarily occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol by the Russian Federation and its armed aggression in certain areas of Donbas region, the occupation authorities have been engaging in targeted activities against the indigenous Crimean Tatar population and the Ukrainian-speaking citizens living in the occupied territory in a manner that may be characterized as racial discrimination.

These discriminatory actions have been well documented and publicized in various reports prepared by, among others, United Nations, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Council of Europe as well as by numerous NGOs. It is important to note that civil society organizations’ submissions to the CERD provided an ample evidence of the Russian Federation’s discriminatory actions in Crimea and in other regions of Ukraine.

Mr. Chair,

Ukraine is deeply concerned with the increase number of cases of racially motivated violence against ethnic minorities and immigrants in Russia that in particular include cases of violence against people of Caucasus and Central Asia by the Russian far-right organizations. According to one of the prominent Russian Center for information and analysis — the Sova-Center, which conducts research and informational work on nationalism and racism, relations between the churches and secular society, and political radicalism: “during the first six months of 2016 racist violence led to 4 cases of murder, 43 assaults and 3 cases of serious death threats”^[1].

Meanwhile, Russian government has been endorsing the far-right movements and approving their participation in the ongoing aggression against my country as a part of hybrid warfare strategy and the state-owned media have been practicing the hate propaganda, which enforces ethnic hostility.

We find these developments deeply alarming particularly after serious violence in Marseille in June this year and in regards to the preparations of FIFA 2018 WORLD CUP, therefore we urge Russian Federation to cease the practice of stirring up the national hatred.

Thank you.

[1] http://www.sova-center.ru/racism-xenophobia/publications/2016/10/d35524/