#IFORatUN #47HRC #ConscientiousObjection #FreedomExpression #Ukraine
The International Fellowship of Reconciliation - IFOR is participating in the 47th session of the Human Rights Council which is taking place in Geneva UN Headquarter.
Today, Friday July 9th, IFOR has participated in the Interactive Dialogue on human rights in Ukraine and has delivered an oral statement in the plenary highlighting violations to the Right to #ConscientiousObjection to military service in Ukraine and referring the case of the pacifist journalist Ruslan Kotsaba (Руслан Коцабa) who is again under trial because he expressed opposition to the military mobilization for armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and recently, on June 25th, has been victim of an attack with a chemical substance by a far-right group.
Human Rights Council, 47th Session
Geneva, 9th July 2021
Item 10: Interactive dialogue on the oral update of the High Commissioner on Ukraine (HRC res. 41/25) and interim report of Secretary-General on the situation of human rights in Crimea (GA res. 75/192)
Oral statement delivered by the International Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Thank you Madam President.
International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) thanks the High Commissioner and Her office for the oral presentation on Ukraine and as well the Secretary General and His office for its report.
We express concern about the militarization in the country, the increase of draftees enlisted planned for the 2021 military draft and the ongoing violations of the right to conscientious objection to military service.
Alternative service, for instance, in Ukraine has a punitive and discriminatory character and it is hardly accessible.
IFOR would like to draw again1the attention of the Members of this Council and of the High Commissioner to the case of Ukrainian journalist and pacifist Ruslan Kotsaba who is again under trial2because of a video posted in 2015 to express opposition to the military mobilization for armed conflict in eastern Ukraine3. He has already spent over 500 days under arrest for his expression of anti-war thoughts and is accused again of treason and obstructing military operations.
On June 25th he was victim of an attack with the green chemical "Seljonka" by a neo-Nazi group at the Ivano Frankivsk railway station and received ophthalmological treatment at the hospital.4[Unfortunately, the attack on Ruslan Kotsaba is not the only act of violence against Ukrainian activists in recent times.]
As already highlighted by IFOR5, “Freedom of thought, conscience and religion is a non-derogable right”, alike freedom of expression, “and it continues to apply regardless of a situation of armed conflict.”
Thank you.
Oral statement delivered by IFOR during the 45th Human Rights Council - Interactive Dialogue on the oral presentation of the report on the situation of human rights in Ukraine on December 18th 2020.
In Kolomyia City District Court of Ivano-Frankivsk Region. The High Specialized Court on Civil and Criminal Cases in 2017 quashed the acquittal and ordered a retrial. Then several judges and local courts recused from the case; the court ordered to return formal accusation for further investigation, but the order was quashed by the appellate court; and now, judges Kalyniuk, Berkeshuk, and Veselov will examine 58 witnesses of the supposed political impact of Ruslan's video blog and pass their judgment.
Ruslan Kotsaba was arrested on 7 February 2015 in Ivano-Frankivsk, 130 km south-east of Lviv, after he posted a video describing the conflict as “the Donbas fratricidal civil war”. He also expressed opposition to military conscription of Ukrainians to take part in the conflict. He was then named as Amnesty International’s first Ukrainian prisoner of conscience in five years. He has already spent 524 days under arrest and was duly acquitted in 2016. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/04/ukraine-suspicious-deaths-need-credible-investigations/
Oral statements delivered by IFOR at the 45th session of the Human rights Council, on October 1st, during the ID with the High Commissioner on the findings of OHCHR report on the situation of human rights in Ukraine.
The case of Ruslan Kotsaba.
Ruslan Kotsaba recognized as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International back in 2015. His case is in the spotlight of the Council of Europe Platform on the protection of journalism and the safety of journalists.
The June 25th attack on Ruslan Kotsaba has not been the first one, unfortunately.
About this episode, more information and an interview with the victim concerned are available here.
On January 22nd 2021, the pacifist journalist was attacked near the Kolomyia City District Court of Ivano-Frankivsk Region, in Ukraine, as he was going to the hearing for the trial where he is charged for publications against the war. He published in 2015 a video titled “I refuse to mobilize”.
Read more about the case of this journalist by clicking here.
Here you can find some additional information on recent IFOR initiatives in solidarity with this pacifist journalist.
Here you can read about the statement that IFOR has previously delivered in the plenary at the UN Human Rights Council in December 2020 during a special Interactive Dialogue on Ukraine, reporting on the case of Ruslan Kotsaba.