Statement by the Deputy Head of the Delegation of the Russian Federation to the UN Human Rights Council, Director of the Department for Multilateral Human Rights Cooperation, Special Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law at the thematic discussion "75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Importance of Honoring International obligations by States"
23 June 2023 00:15
23-06-2023
Dear colleagues,
This year marks the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The role of this milestone document in forming an international agenda for promoting and protecting human rights can hardly be underestimated. Nowadays the UDHR is a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations.
Another important commemorative event in 2023 is the 30th Anniversary of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted at the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993. The international community declared human rights to be universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated as well as underlined the principle of equality for all categories of human rights - civil, political, economic, social and cultural.
The Russian Federation believes that true protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms are only possible through dialogue and the development of friendly relations between nations.
Unfortunately, this topic is still used by some countries as a pretext for interference in the internal affairs of independent States. This is the case of certain "exemplary democracies" (as they prefer to refer to themselves) of the collective West, some of which, inter alia, prepare politically motivated reports on the human rights situation worldwide. In those endeavours they label countries as "leaders" and "losers" depending on their respective political choices.
Such an approach, however unbelievable it may seem, is now omnipresent and requires a response on the part of the international community.
Against this backdrop, the Russian Foreign Ministry has carried out a thorough and comprehensive research dedicated to the human rights situation in certain countries. The latter traditionally include the above-mentioned Western democracies. The results of this work can be found in a same-name report published on the Ministry's official website. Its English version is currently being prepared and will be available shortly.
This is far from being our first take at summarizing in one study all sorts of human rights violations in the countries in question. Such reports are published annually and then sent to the representatives of States and international human rights organisations. Unfortunately, these steps do not preclude the collective West from turning a blind eye to all the arguments and facts presented in our materials.
So, bearing this in mind, I would like to take the opportunity to briefly introduce to you some key points of the latest report.
First and foremost, one of our primary concerns is the increase in reported cases of discrimination based on religion or belief, origin, including Islamophobic, Christianophobic, Arabophobic, Afrophobic and xenophobic manifestations.
In 1948 UN Member States endorsed the UDHR in order to strengthen the respect for the inherent dignity of the human person and restore its value after the scourges of World War II. Indeed, humanity paid a bitter price of tens of millions of human lives for a painful lesson: there must be no place for the ideas of Nazism and racial supremacy in a civilized world.
Yet today we witness radical nationalists raising their heads throughout Europe and Northern America, while the principles of universality and equality for all categories of human rights are being ignored. The new trend is attempting to export certain regional or country-specific human rights standards as universal. Thus, the West once declared freedom of opinion and expression to be an absolute right. Exercising this right now serves to justify certain officials' lack of action when it comes to a wide scope of manifestations of racism, xenophobia and neo-Nazism.
However, article 29 of the UDHR states clearly and unequivocally that certain limitations to the exercise of rights and freedoms are still possible on the condition that they are determined by law and serve the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
In addition, the provisions of international human rights treaties, notably of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, provide a major regulatory framework for combating such phenomena.
Article 4 is a key provision of the ICERD. In accordance with it, States Parties to the Convention undertake to condemn all organisations based on ideas of superiority of one group of persons of a certain ethnic origin and declare them illegal, as well as declare an offence punishable by law all dissemination of ideas based on racial superiority or hatred.
This is why marches and gatherings of Waffen-SS veterans, instances of erection of monuments to Nazis or other radical manifestations are in fact punishable criminal offences and not the exercise of freedom of expression or peaceful assembly.
This being said, it comes as no surprise that this year the Western countries and their allies unanimously voted against the traditional UNGA resolution "Combating glorification of Nazism, Neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance" annually submitted by Russia, Belarus and other co-sponsors. Notwithstanding such a fierce opposition, the resolution was still supported by the overwhelming majority of 120 Member States.
It is also of no surprise that Western countries attempt to use every avenue at their disposal to "tailor" human rights standards to their own need, namely, through such an instrument as reservations to human rights treaties. In particular, the majority of such States have made reservations to such articles as article 19 of the ICCPR and article 4 of ICERD. This in practice allows them to counter almost any accusation of hate speech, racial discrimination, xenophobic or neo-Nazi discourse by referring to them as "realization of the right to freedom of opinion and expression", a position that is cynical to say the least. And what about reservations by Western P5 members of the UN Security Council to Article 20 of the ICCPR that states that "Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law" and that "Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law"? Are these reservations in line with the P5's special responsibility for maintaining international peace and security?
Turning back to the report by the Russian Foreign Ministry, it is important to note that a significant part of it is dedicated to the human rights situation in Ukraine. The latter is examined through its gradual evolution. At the moment when this country gained independence its authorities had already embarked on a course of creating a mono-ethnic state. After the 2014 coup-d'Etat this process noticeably accelerated.
The policy of assimilation of ethnic minorities was conducted through the legislative consolidation of the dominant role of the Ukrainian language by laws On Education, On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language, and On Comprehensive General Secondary Education. The rights of the Russian and Russian-speaking population have been restricted the most, but other ethnic groups were also disadvantaged. This is notably the case of the Hungarian and Romanian communities. Not only were they affected by the language reform, but also by the administrative one. By enlarging the districts where these groups constituted the majority of the population, the Ukrainian authorities strived to dilute the proportion of ethnic Hungarians and Romanians.
Another issue is the problem of persecution of political opponents, independent journalists and media companies. To this end, the Kiev authorities actively engage "the good offices" of members of radical nationalist organisations who often break the law but remain unpunished. Over the past years, international human rights organisations have recorded many facts of arbitrary and unlawful detention, torture, and sexual violence.
Furthermore, Kiev's campaign against the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church has reached a new level in terms of cynicism and hypocrisy. It has now taken the form of a total ban on the Church, including Zelenskiy regime's decision to evict its clergy from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
As for the report of the MFA in general, each country chapter contains a brief description of the human rights situation of Russian citizens and compatriots. It is all the more relevant in the context of the russophobic hysteria which reached a new high following the launch of the special military operation aimed at the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine.
Among the most frequent human rights violations are refusals to provide educational, healthcare, banking, and other services, introduction of measures targeting Russian business enterprises, coercion to public condemnation of the Russian government's actions, banning from sporting events, attacks, threats, insults, dismissal from work, eviction of Russian families from apartments regardless of existing residential lease agreements.
Meanwhile, the problems that had existed prior to February 2022 remain relevant., The "hunt" for our fellow citizens, unleashed by the US government, is continuing all around the world. In a number of countries (first of all, in the Baltic states, the USA, Canada) the governments are displeased with by the position of the Russian-speaking community in favour of maintaining friendly relations with our country. Additionally, the governments of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are following Ukraine's example in attempting to eradicate the Russian language from all spheres of public and everyday life.
Along with this, the Russian MFA report deals with a wide range of other acute issues. These are: the inability of national governments to ensure the rights of indigenous peoples (as in Canada, Australia and New Zealand); Europe-wide difficulties with overcoming of the marginalisation of the Roma and Sinti communities; discrimination and stigmatisation of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohia; fierce intolerance to any political opposition in Moldova, culminating in the recent court decision to ban the "Shor" political party; limitations to the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association (which is generally deemed sacred and therefore not subject to limitations in the West), which in practice turn into brutal dispersal of politically unwelcome demonstrations (as in France, the UK and the USA); and a long list of violations of rights of children, women, migrants, elderly and disabled persons.
The research developed is not aimed at lecturing or moralising. On the contrary, it strives for objectivity as it is based on data from human rights NGOs and takes into account recommendations and concluding observations of international universal and regional human rights institutions - specifically, UN human rights treaty bodies regional (primarily European) mechanisms, such as the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, the Advisory Committee of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, the European Commission for Democracy through Law - better known as the Venice Commission and OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. However, first and foremost, our report summarises facts of human rights violations in specific countries. Judging the moral implications is up to our readers.
I cannot but note with satisfaction that similar work is also conducted by our colleagues in the Foreign Ministry of Belarus, the Chinese Society for Human Rights Studies. For us, this is strong evidence that we are not alone in the fight for preserving the core human rights principles as they are enshrined in the UDHR and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, as well as universal human rights instruments.
We strongly believe that only by working together will the international community be able to develop a constructive, equitable and mutually respectful dialogue on human rights taking into account the national, cultural and historical characteristics of each State.
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