Svitlana Zalishchuk, a foreign policy advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, today addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council, in a joint statement with UN Watch. Her remarks follow below. March 22, 2022.
.@svitlanaza: "Thousands of innocent people killed. Rockets hit our churches, theaters, schools, hospitals & kindergartens. 3 million people became refugees. A country that commits war crimes has no place among the members of the UN Human Rights Council." https://t.co/6LoDHXJWkb pic.twitter.com/M9U9lxsguD
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) March 22, 2022
In 1941, my grandmother was captured by Nazis in the Nikolaevsky region and transferred to Germany as a forced laborer. Today, her son — my father — in the night under air raid sirens before potential rocket attacks, left the city and became a refugee.
The bitter irony is that on February 24, Putin started a war in my country, in the center of Europe, explaining it with the goals of the mythical denazification of Ukraine. Denazification of a country whose leader is of Jewish origin. Unprovoked. Unjustifiable. Unforgivable.
The success of Putin’s denazification in Ukraine speaks for itself. Thousands of innocent people killed, including more than 100 children. Rockets hit our churches, theaters, schools, hospitals and kindergartens. Three million people became refugees. Hundreds of thousands of people remain hostages of Putin — in some cities without water, food, heat and electricity.
Russian airplanes deliberately dropped several powerful bombs on the theatre in Mariupol, which was a shelter for women and children.
I call on the United Nations Human Rights Council to activate all the available mechanisms to investigate crimes against Ukrainians in order to bring war criminals to justice.
A country that commits war crimes has no place among the members of the UN Human Rights Council.
History is not only what we read in books about World War Two. History is what we are doing today to protect democracy and human rights. I’m calling on you to stand up for Ukraine.
(Photo by Mark Mann)
