This Wednesday, February 21, a working meeting of the DPR Ombudsman Daria Morozova and the Head of UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine Fiona Frazer was held in closed session.
At the meeting, Daria Morozova told UN representatives that the Ukrainian side unilaterally changed the previously agreed exchange list during the exchange of 27.12.2017.
In addition, the DPR Ombudsman stressed the fact that the Ukrainian side violated the established procedure, as it didn’t provide released persons with identity documents seized by law enforcement bodies of Ukraine. Thus, persons returned to the DPR as a result of the exchange, are deprived of the right to justice both in Ukraine and at the European Court of Human Rights. Also, contrary to the agreements reached at the meetings in Minsk, Ukrainian authorities did not clear procedurally all persons subject to the exchange.
Daria Morozova highlighted that there is still no reaction from the international community to gross violations by Kyiv of the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk agreements as well as international humanitarian law. The Ombudsman called upon the UN representatives to pay special attention to repeated violations by Ukraine of the agreements reached at the highest level.
At the meeting Daria Morozova noted that UN representatives can meet former prisoners, who currently live in Temporary Accommodation Centres of the Ombudsman Office, to document violations of their rights during their stay in Ukrainian prisons.
Finally, DPR Ombudsman and the Head of UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine Fiona Frazer discussed major impediments to conducting the second stage of the exchange of detainees.
