During the 60th Human Rights Council Session, which started in Geneva this September, UN high officials, special rapporteurs, independent experts, and working groups presented their thematic reports, and our Association earier communicated with them, sending them relevant submissions for documents preparation, regarding relevant aspects of the situation in Crimea and other Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine.
Earlier we pointed to the relevant current Report A/HRC/60/28 of UN Special Rapporteur Professor Tomoya Obokata “Worst forms of child labour: assessing progress and persisting challenges,” where the inputs of our Association, describing Russian crimes against children in the occupied Crimea, were mentioned.
Also gratitude for our submissions were pointed in the Report of the UN Secretary-General A/HRC/60/52, Report of the Working Group on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas A/HRC/60/33, Reports of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances A/HRC/60/35/Add.4 and A/HRC/60/35, Study by the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples A/HRC/60/66, Report of Professor Surya Deva, the Special Rapporteur on the right to development, A/HRC/60/25, Report of Professor Pedro Agudo, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation A/HRC/60/30, Report of Professor Marcos Orellana, the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes A/HRC/60/34 etc.
Those documents reflected some challenges, described in our submissions; for example, Report A/HRC/60/33, “Rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas,” recognized that armed conflicts pose a direct threat to land access and rural livelihoods, often resulting in the violent dispossession of peasant communities. Military occupation and hostilities can lead to the outright loss of agricultural land, with vast areas seized or rendered unusable and communities severed from their means of production. Report A/HRC/60/30 added that deliberate destruction of farms, irrigation systems, and forests further devastates rural economies, while attacks on critical infrastructure, such as dams and power plants, can trigger catastrophic flooding, environmental damage, and forced displacement.
Report A/HRC/60/30 “Water and energy nexus,” stressed regarding the relevant situation that in the face of accelerating climate change, deepening social inequalities, and the growing degradation of ecosystems, it is imperative to adopt a human rights-based, sustainable and integrated approach to managing water and energy.
Report A/HRC/60/34 “Guidelines on access to justice and effective remedies in the context of toxics,” added that toxics cases often involve widespread harm that affects whole communities and even the rights of future generations, and concern severe human suffering, including anguish, illness and death. It stressed that states should guarantee an enabling environment to victims and environmental defenders in their work in defense of human rights, free from threats, violence and harassment.
Report A/HRC/60/25 “Nexus between gender equality and the right to development” added on duty to strengthen institutions to prevent violations of the human rights of women and girls during armed conflicts and wars and to hold accountable the actors responsible for such violations. Study A/HRC/60/66 “Right of Indigenous Peoples to data, including with regard to data collection and disaggregation” stressed, regarding the relevant challenges, the duty to protect the privacy of digital communications and ensure that restrictions on the right to privacy do not discriminate on the basis of Indigenous identity.
Report A/HRC/60/35 “Enforced or involuntary disappearance” stressed in its point 81 that there is a concerning and growing pattern of enforced disappearances involving Russia, primarily driven by the ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine. In addition to soldiers, reported disappearances are of civilians perceived as opponents, including local officials, journalists and activists, and the disappearances are allegedly accompanied by detention without legal safeguards, with torture and with transfers to undisclosed locations, that Report added, summarizing that Russian authorities committed enforced disappearances as crimes against humanity, reflecting a widespread or systematic attack against civilians.
Report A/HRC/60/35 expressed the Working Group’s solidarity and deep respect for the relatives of disappeared persons, as well as for the organizations, the human rights defenders and the lawyers who support these victims. It acknowledged the difficulties and the increasingly hostile and dangerous environments in which they conduct their work towards truth, justice, reparations, memory and non-repetition, which is further compounded by increasing cuts to humanitarian aid and funding, as well as the emergence of restrictive legislation often curtailing their work.
Report A/HRC/60/35/Add.4 stressed on that issue about the specific situation with enforced disappearance in the context of the defence of land, natural resources and environment. Report A/HRC/60/52 added to that issue the thesis on conflicts related to resources through the building of transition supply chains, fossil fuel dependency, and other conflicts over natural resources. Our complex efforts at coordination with the authorised UN bodies and agencies will be continued.
