UNHRC to convene special session on Ukraine
A special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will be convened on May 12 to discuss the current Ukraine crisis, with a special focus on the Bucha killings and the situation in the city of Mariupol, the body announced on Monday.
"The move will send a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who insisted today that Russia's war in Ukraine is necessary to defend the 'Motherland'," said Yevheniia Filipenko, Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations.
"Together, we are sending another message to Putin and his clique of war criminals; you are isolated as never before," Filipenko said in a video message on the Twitter handle of the east European country's Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office.
"We want to see the UN take practical steps to address Moscow's violation of human rights in Ukraine, and the war crimes which it commits daily against our people," she further said.
The development came after Kyiv requested for an extraordinary meeting of the UN's Geneva-based top human rights body to discuss what the former says is 'the deteriorating human rights situation in Ukraine due to the Russian aggression.'
In order to convene a special session, the support from as many as 16 members of the council is needed. The body has a total of 47 member states; Emine Dzheppar, Ukraine's first deputy minister for foreign affairs, said 60 states (members and observers) supported Kyiv's appeal for an extraordinary session.
The request was backed by member states including Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, South Korea, the United States, and Ukraine itself.
Among the observers, countries including Canada, Colombia, Italy, Moldova, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey backed the call.
The meeting will be held at 8am GMT (1:30pm IST) and aired in all six official UN languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
Russia, which invaded its neighbour on February 24, saw its membership being suspended by the UNHRC on April 8.
