Linkevičius and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights discuss deteriorating situation of human rights in eastern Ukraine and Russian-occupied Crimea
During the 34th session of the UN Human Rights Council on 28 February, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius met with Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and expressed Lithuania’s readiness to continue cooperation in the field of human rights.
Linkevičius invited the UN Commissioner to visit Lithuania in 2017and said that the country had started campaigning for election to the Human Rights Council for the term 2022-2024. The campaign will mainly focus on issues relating to the safety of journalists and women’s rights.
The officials drew attention to the relationship between human rights and conflict prevention, and stressed that the strengthening of populism, increased hatred, as well as aggressive propaganda and rhetoric in public spaces encouraged the use of measures regarding prevention of human rights abuses in order to eliminate possible sources of conflict.
In the meeting, the officials discussed the deteriorating security and human rights situation in eastern Ukraine. Lithuania’s Foreign Minister presented the outcomes of the visit to Avdiivka, eastern Ukraine, and the call of the local people for the international community’s greater engagement in ending Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The officials agreed to seek the implementation of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution on the human rights situation in Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, and to continue to insist that the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine must be granted access to Russian-occupied Crimea. Lithuania’s Foreign Minister also informed that Lithuania had allocated EUR 20 thousand in financial support for activities of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Ukraine.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is the principal human rights official of the United Nations, who heads the OHCHR and spearheads the United Nations’ human rights efforts. Jordan’s Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein assumed his functions as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on 1 September 2014.
