International Committee of Red Cross fails to fulfil its mandate to full extent – Ukraine's Human Rights Commissioner
DIANA KRECHETOVA – FRIDAY, 28 OCTOBER 2022
Dmytro Lubinets, the Human Rights Commissioner of Ukraine, believes that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has so far failed to fulfil its mandate in Ukraine to the fullest.
Source: Lubinets, in an interview with Ukrinform news agency; in it, he said that the ICRC has to publicly acknowledge that it is being prevented from fulfilling its duties by Russia.
Quote by Lubinets:"I am constantly asking them to live up to their mandate. If they cannot do so, they have to publicly acknowledge it. The most important thing is to name the country that prevents them from fulfilling their duties – that is, the russian federation [sic]," Lubinets stressed.
Details: He added that the ICRC’s mandate in Ukraine is set out in the Geneva Conventions, which stipulate that the ICRC has to monitor whether the rights of military and civilian prisoners of war held in the countries that are party to an international conflict are protected.
"Their main duty is to carry out this mandate and maintain neutrality," Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner reiterated.
In response to the ICRC’s statement that guaranteeing the safety of the Ukrainian soldiers who defended the Azovstal plant in Mariupol and were captured by Russia was beyond the limit of their responsibilities, Lubinets advised all ICRC representatives to pay extreme attention to the Geneva Conventions:
"There, it is stated that the state that has captured prisoners of war has the duty to ensure adequate conditions of their detention, to provide medical care and the necessary food, and even to ensure that they have an opportunity to send and receive letters from their relatives at least once a month. According to the Geneva Conventions, the International Committee of the Red Cross must ensure all of these rights are observed."
The Human Rights Commissioner believes that if the Russian Federation was certain that the ICRC mission would inspect detention facilities where Ukrainian prisoners of war are held, it would be forced to improve the conditions at those facilities; at the very least, Ukrainian prisoners would be given more food and the Russians would stop torturing them. Lubinets explained that it would take some time for traces of torture to disappear from people’s bodies.
"So when I hear statements like that, it seems to me that people that make them are trying to free themselves of all responsibility despite knowing very well that this responsibility is stipulated by international human rights law, by the Geneva Conventions and other similarly well known and serious documents," Lubinets concluded.
Previously: On 17 October, representatives of the ICRC failed to arrive at the location in Zaporizhzhia Oblast (on the border between Ukrainian-controlled and Russian-occupied territory) where the Ukrainian delegation was waiting for them. The ICRC representatives were expected to secure access to Olenivka prison and visit Ukrainian prisoners held there.
Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
