Ombudsman: I Hope Next UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Will Protect Human Rights Rather Than Worry About Being ‘Neutral’

At the end of the summer of 2022, the tenure of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet ends, I hope that the next UN High Commissioner for Human Rights will really protect human rights rather than worry about his “neutrality,” Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said.

“The “neutrality” of international organizations has long been adopted by dictatorial regimes, but since February 24, 2022, these weapons in the hands of the Russian army have killed 5,500 civilians in Ukraine, including almost a thousand children,” he said on Telegram.

Lubinets said that Bachelet’s “neutral” statements and the creation of various monitoring missions did not reduce the number of victims among civilians in cities and towns, nor did the established missions gain access to Mariupol, Olenivka, or ZNPP.

“The exemplary mildness and inaction of the UN only encourages the enemy to act with increasing cruelty. The millions of dollars used daily by the UN human rights bureaucrats do not affect the fulfillment of the mandate entrusted to them,” the ombudsman said.

He also stressed that the Russian Federation corrupted most international institutions for the money of citizens of democratic countries.

“This is the money for energy sales that is given to buy positions and votes in the OSCE, the UN or even Amnesty International. Another part of the money goes to propaganda and fake news, and even more goes to weapons to destroy our cities,” he added.

The ombudsman said that he expects, together with Ukrainians, decisive reforms in the global and European systems of collective security and systems for protecting the rule of law and human rights, and will speak about this during the regular session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on October 4 this year.

“International institutions must stop being a symbol of only “anxiety” and a call to both sides to honor their commitments. This is our demand to Europe and the world. Ukraine has already taken the hit in protection of human rights and democratic values. Everything that the Russian Federation has destroyed in the country, it wants to destroy in Europe: freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, free elections, freedom from torture and slavery. And it is the duty of the UN to support Ukraine in this struggle. Or disappear, as the League of Nations disappeared,” he said.