Ukrainian lawmakers fume over omission of Ukraine from human rights report

During his speech about the report, Jagland talked about the need to protect child
migrants from sexual abuse and the
problems of the international migrant crisis, but said nothing about the
situation in Ukraine. The report was published on June 17.

Lawmaker and Deputy Head of Ukrainian Parliament Iryna
Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook that the Ukrainian delegation had little chance
to ask Jagland about the omission of Ukraine during the question and answer
session on June 20, as the Ukrainian delegates were at the end of the list of
questioners.

Fortunately, according to Gerashchenko, Batkivshchyna
faction lawmaker Serhiy Sobolev did manage to ask
Jagland why there was not a single
word about the plight of Ukrainians in Crimea and Donbas in the 104-page report.

“(Sobolev) asked why the secretary general didn’t mention the
torture and kidnapping of Tatars and other Ukrainian prisoners in Crimea, the Donbas
and Russia, and about … freedom of speech violations there,” Gerashchenko wrote.

According to Gerashchenko, Jagland said there was no mention
of Ukraine in the report due to the lack of information about the human rights situation
in Crimea and the Donbas.

“He said that only information obtained by the special
Council of Europe monitoring missions could be included in the report. Since no missions were allowed to enter
Crimea and Donbas last year, they couldn’t provide information about the human
rights situation there. That’s horrible,” wrote Gerashchenko.

However, according to a Council of Europe press release, in
response to a question about human rights in Crimea, Jagland said that the
Council of Europe was the only international organization on the ground
monitoring the human rights situation, by meeting with key groups, including
representatives of civil society, the Crimean Tatars and young people.

“So since Russia has closed off occupied Ukrainian
territories from the world, is the Council of Europe going to be silent about
the abuse of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars? What a disgrace! Our delegation is
working on a protest note about this report,” Gerashchenko wrote.

Kyiv Post staff writer Veronika Melkozerova
can be reached at melkozerova@kyivpost.com