MOSCOW, November 24. /TASS/: The European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI) has demonstrated that it is unwilling to impartially assess the human rights situation in Ukraine, Russia’s human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, said after attending the General Assembly of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) in Brussels.
"We witnessed how the democratic principles of freedom of opinion and speech, humanism and philanthropy, so often professed by the EU GANHRI, turned out to be nothing but fine declarations. The European Network of NHRI did not even try to pretend that they were ready for an objective assessment of the human rights component of the situation in Ukraine."
The ENNHRI has turned a blind eye to "the 14,500 residents of Donbass killed by Ukraine over 8 years of systematic attempts to physically destroy the region, the 10,000 civilians of Donetsk and Lugansk killed by Ukraine over the past 8 months, the blatant discrimination against the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine, the old people who were left to starve to death, the ruins of residential areas, hospitals, childcare centers and schools, and the water and power blockade of Crimea."
"The participants of the event ignored gross human rights violations by Ukraine - torture and abuse of Russian soldiers. Not a single word was heard about the recent execution of 11 POWs in Makeyevka," Moskalkova said.
She added that the European Network of NHRI has refused to consider Ukraine's methods of warfare, while the ombudsman’s requests alone have resulted in the opening of 30 criminal cases in Russia over the torture of Russian prisoners of war.
"We are calling on the world community to objectively consider all instances of human rights violations in Ukraine," Moskalkova said.
She said she found useful only a series of meetings with the Ukrainian parliament Verkhovna Rada’s human rights commissioner, Dmitry Lubinets, also attended by ENNHRI Secretary-General Debbie Kohner.
"We drew up an action plan for helping people within our mandates," Moskalkova said.
