GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations human rights chief on Wednesday urged Russia to respect humanitarian law after outlining evidence published in a report two weeks ago of arbitrary detention, torture and sexual violence against civilians in Ukraine.
The U.N. rights monitoring mission in Ukraine documented the arbitrary detention of more than 900 civilians between the launch of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, and May 23 of this year, and the summary executions of 77 of them.
“Over 90% of detainees held by the Russian Federation whom we were able to interview said they had been subjected to torture and ill-treatment – including sexual violence, in some cases – by Russian security personnel,” Turk told the Council, the only body in which governments meet to protect human rights worldwide.
“These findings are shocking. They call for concrete measures by the Russian Federation to instruct and ensure their Russian personnel comply with international human rights and humanitarian law.”
There was no immediate comment from the Russian permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva, although Russia has denied committing atrocities and deliberately targeting civilians.
Ukraine gave U.N. investigators full access with the exception of one incident, the report said, while Russia did not provide any access to detainees despite repeated requests.
Turk said his office had also recorded some violations committed by Ukraine.
“We also found that Ukrainian personnel in unofficial places of detention, or – to a much lesser extent – in official pre-trial detention facilities, engaged in torture or ill-treatment, including sexual violence, mostly involving threats,” Turk said.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
