Senior UN human rights official in Crimea

Senior UN human rights official in Crimea

GENEVA (21 March 2014) – UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Šimonović today arrived in Crimea for a two-day visit to lay the groundwork for a UN human rights monitoring mission to set up a presence in Crimea.
Led by Šimonović, the four-person team from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights plans to meet in Simferopol today Mr. Sergei Aksenov, Mr. Vladimir Konstantinov, as well as representatives of the Ombudsperson, civil society, journalists and regional organisations. The team also plans to meet Ukrainian servicemen and their families. Meetings have also been scheduled with Mr. Refat Chubarov, Chair of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Prosecutor-General Ms. Natalya Poklonskaya, as well as the Russian Consul-General.
The team plans to visit Sevastopol tomorrow for further meetings before returning to Kyiv.
During an earlier official mission to Ukraine this month, from March 6-18, Šimonović announced the formation and immediate deployment of a UN human rights monitoring team, led by Armen Harutyunyan, throughout Ukraine to help establish the facts surrounding allegations of human rights violations and serve to de-escalate tensions.

ENDS        
For more information and media requests, please contact: Ravina Shamdasani (+ 41 22 917 9169 / rshamdasani@ohchr.org ) or Liz Throssell (+ 41 22 917 9434 / ethrossell@ohchr.org)

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