Tag: Foreign Office

President, let me begin by thanking Directors Menikdiwela and Liljert for their briefings today.

The UK would also like to thank France and Malta for their efforts in drafting the renewal of UN Security Council Resolution 2652, which we fully support. As we are all aware, Libya is a complex operating environment for tackling migration and human smuggling. All refugees and migrants, regardless of their migration status, should be treated with the humanity and dignity that they deserve.

The UK continues to be deeply concerned by abuses of migrants and refugees in Libya. We continue to call on the Libyan authorities to take steps to end the exploitation and abuse of migrants and refugees, working towards the closure of all detention centres. A more holistic approach is needed to tackle the drivers of migration across Africa and the Western Mediterranean route and we are committed to working closely with member states and the UN to achieve this, and we take note of the recommendations by the UNCHR and the IOM today.

President, the UK also continues to urge the Libyan authorities to comply with their obligations under International Humanitarian Law, and implement a functioning migration system that respects migrants’ and refugees’ human rights.

Unfortunately, these challenges will sadly endure in Libya in the absence of a political solution, which is why driving forward that process is front and centre of our work. We continue to support SRSG Bathily and the work he is doing to reach an inclusive political agreement, as well as UNSMIL’s wider efforts to support peace and stability in Libya.

President, before concluding, let me also note that we hope the Russia delegation will give equal focus to language on human rights and international law when the Council discusses UNSMIL’s mandate next month.

Let me begin by thanking SRSG Keita, the Permanent Representative of Gabon as the Chair of the 1533 Committee and Ms Modi for their briefings today. I welcome the participation of Deputy Prime Minister Lutundula and the Permanent Representative of Rwanda in our meeting.

President, the UK fully supports the work carried out by MONUSCO, especially in protecting civilians. We commend the mission and SRSG Keita for their continued efforts in increasingly challenging circumstances.

We remain extremely concerned by the fragile situation in eastern DRC. Regional peace processes should be respected and all support to armed groups must stop.

We acknowledge the DRC’s request to bring forward MONUSCO’s withdrawal and welcome the government’s commitment to ensuring this process is progressive and responsible.

We want to see a handover from MONUSCO to DRC authorities. There has already been significant progress in this regard in recent years, with MONUSCO withdrawing from the Kasais and Tanganyika. Lessons learnt from these processes should inform MONUSCO’s withdrawal from other provinces.

In preparation for the further withdrawal of MONUSCO, we encourage the Mission to continue transitioning tasks to the Congolese state, and, where appropriate, the UN Country Team and other international partners.

The UK is ready to consider further consolidation of MONUSCO’s footprint and a reduction of the troop ceiling during MONUSCO’s mandate renewal in December, in line with the Government’s request to accelerate withdrawal.

However, we must also carefully consider the implications of MONUSCO’s drawdown on the civilian population. The consequences of a rushed departure would be severe. In addition to extensive support to the Congolese security forces in operations against armed groups, MONUSCO currently protects thousands of civilians in eastern DRC. While the UN and international partners can play a supporting role, the Government must be willing and able to assume its responsibilities on civilian protection.

We encourage the Government of DRC to agree responsibilities for a responsible, conditions-based drawdown with MONUSCO. This should include a sustainable plan for providing security in those areas from which MONUSCO withdraws.
President, the UK fully supports the Nairobi and Luanda peace processes, which are key to tackling the underlying drivers of conflict.

In conclusion, we look forward to engaging with all stakeholders on MONUSCO’s future during the mandate renewal, and ensuring that we uphold our responsibility as a Council to support peace and stability in the DRC.

Thank you, Chair. Good morning, colleagues. One year ago, Russia attempted to illegally annex the Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. The illegitimate regional authorities, set up and supported by Russia, held sham referendums, fabricated the results and then announced their supposed control over sovereign Ukrainian territory. Despite international condemnation, Russia continues to claim it has control over these Ukrainian oblasts and continues to attempt to subjugate Ukrainians to its illegally claimed authority.

Mr Chair, we have seen countless occasions, such as these, where Russia has ignored the facts and repeated its patently false narratives. At the start of this month, Russia once again violated the UN Charter, staging illegitimate elections in Crimea and the Ukrainian oblasts it claimed to have annexed. As with last year’s sham referendums, Russia pre-determined the results. Russian authorities used intimidation to force residents to the polls at gunpoint. Russia has continued with the ludicrous claim that it is liberating Ukrainian civilians. But if that were true, then why did Russia need to use such tactics? Why over the past 12 months have we seen report after report of Russia inflicting appalling atrocities on these innocent civilians?

Reporting from the UN reveals that the continued use by Russian forces of torture on Ukrainian residents in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia is widespread and systematic. The UN has compiled accounts of beatings, electric shocks, sexual violence including rape, suffocation, waterboarding, strangling and deprivation of food and water. In some cases, such actions were inflicted with such brutality that it caused the victims’ deaths. Mr Chair, Russia’s true intentions are clear. Russia is attempting to instil fear and subjugate the Ukrainian people. Russia cannot hide its harrowing atrocities behind its blatant lies.

The UK will continue to highlight Russia’s repressive campaign against the Ukrainian people, including the deportation of citizens to Russia and temporarily Russian-controlled territory. As outlined in the third Moscow Mechanism report, deporting Ukrainian children forms a deliberate part of Russia’s strategy to wipe Ukraine off the map. The Russian authorities have forcibly deported over 19,500 Ukrainian children. That’s over 19,500 children who have been separated from their families and legal guardians. For each child, for each family, it is a tragedy. In February, the Conflict Observatory estimated that 6,000 Ukrainian children have been transferred to re-education camps in illegally annexed Crimea and mainland Russia. We also have information that this year, Russia aims to host around 100,000 Ukrainian children from Russian-controlled territories to participate in a summer camp programme, with the aim to politically indoctrinate children to align with Russia. These so-called summer camps seek to “Russify” Ukrainian children. Exposing them to a combination of Russia-centric academic, cultural, patriotic and military education.

Such appalling attempts to indoctrinate the most innocent expose the inhumanity of Putin and his proxies. The UK will not turn away. Last year, the UK sanctioned Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for her alleged involvement in the forced transfer and adoption of Ukrainian children. And this year the UK sanctioned an additional 11 parties for their role in Russia’s chilling programme of forced child deportation. We will not hesitate to impose further economic measures on those determined to contravene international law.

Mr Chair, the United Kingdom stands united with our international partners in condemnation of Russian atrocities. We will never recognise Russia’s attempts to annex sovereign Ukrainian territory. And we will never allow Russia to normalise its brutality with disinformation, distraction and lies. Thank you, Mr Chair.

Thank you Mr President,

We have long had concerns about human rights in Russia. But it is deeply disturbing to see the return of Soviet-era violations. Neighbour denouncing neighbour, politically motivated detentions, and mass forced deportations. We will continue to shine a spotlight on Russia’s repression of its own people and its systematic crackdown on civil society. It’s time to end the illegal aggression against Ukraine.

China continues to disregard human rights. Constraining civil society, denying freedom of expression, and of religion or belief. Systematic violations persist in Xinjiang and Tibet, where the UN reports a million Tibetan children have been separated from their families to assimilate them into Han culture. In Hong Kong politicised prosecutions against Jimmy Lai, the ‘NSL 47’, and journalists exemplify authorities’ targeted campaign to repress criticism. We urge China to uphold its human rights obligations, and the rights of its own people enshrined in its own Constitution.

One year after the tragic death of Mahsa Amini, Iran continues repressing women and girls. Through the new Hijab and Chastity Bill, the authorities seek to police what women wear and how they behave. Iran must listen to its people and respect women’s rights. Woman, Life, Freedom.

We welcome the recent releases of a number of opposition and rights activists in Egypt. We call on Egypt to continue on this positive path and release other human rights defenders, including Alaa Abd El-Fattah, as soon as possible. We continue to urge Egypt to ensure independent media and civil society can operate freely.

Finally, decisive action is needed to ensure accountability in Sudan for the horrific violence being inflicted on the people of Sudan by both parties to the conflict, particularly in Khartoum and Darfur.

We expressed our concerns about Afghanistan and Myanmar and other situations in other statements to this Council.

Thank you, President, and I thank Special Envoy Pedersen, Director Wosornu, and IRC Vice President Jarbawi for their briefings. With humanitarian needs in Syria at their highest in years, it is critical that the Council have before us the facts, as well as the insights from your teams.

First, the UK welcomes the news that aid is once again reaching the people of north-west Syria, 70 days after Russia vetoed the cross-border resolution. We are clear that those deliveries must be secure and unhindered, and delivered in accordance with the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence.

But once again the UN is having to develop contingency plans for when permissions for Bab al-Rai and Bab al-Salam expire in 45 days’ time. Short-term agreements are not a sustainable solution for the people of north-west Syria who rely on the UN’s life-saving aid.

And those short-term arrangements distract humanitarian teams on the ground with constant contingencies and planning for worst-case scenarios when their most pressing priority is to engage with the people who need their support. We do need a more sustainable approach for the lifeline of cross-border assistance.

Turning to political developments. We are following closely the demonstrations in Sweida in defence of their political and economic rights. It is disappointing that despite readmission to the Arab League, Syria refuses to abide by the decisions of this Council and to engage meaningfully in the political process. The trafficking of large quantities of captagon across the region continues unabated: this month we have seen some of the largest captagon seizures on record.

We therefore urge the regime to begin to engage seriously in the political process established by UNSCR 2254, including the early convening of the Constitutional Committee.

The peace and stability of the region depend on it.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Last week, Russia once again advocated that this Forum be used for dialogue, to adhere to the appropriate functions for which the Forum was designed; namely to negotiate and consult on concrete measures aimed at strengthening security and stability throughout Europe. It is my hope this week that the Russian delegation will remain for the duration of the session, for dialogue is as much about listening as talking.

Last week, this Forum heard Russia’s statement and we were able to reflect on Russia’s position against objective facts. Unfortunately, once again, Russia’s 25-minute monologue bore little resemblance to reality. Some of this was obvious in the small details, such as the slide presentation professing to show supposed British captured equipment in Patriot Park; a cursory glance will show that this is not British equipment. In some of the more significant details contained within Russia’s statement, there was inaccuracy about the environmental and health effects attributable to the use of Depleted Uranium ammunition; I regret that the Russian delegate did not stay to hear the objective findings concerning these munitions. At the geopolitical level, we heard yet more disinformation about western attempts to revive a so-called ‘unipolar order’; if by a unipolar order, Russia meant a common set of principles as encapsulated in the UN charter for the furtherance of peace, then I will concede that on this point it is correct. However, I suspect that was not Russia’s meaning.

And this is why the vast majority of nations in this Forum condemn Russian actions; because it has violated the principles about which I speak. Principles that Russia, along with all other OSCE participating States co-wrote and committed to upholding. Now I will talk about facts, not the disinformation that we continually hear from the Russian delegate. Russia launched an unprovoked attack against a neighbouring country. It has brought untold misery and death to many thousands of people. A growing number of international bodies such as the Commission of Inquiry of the United Human Rights Council, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the OSCE have reported evidence of war crimes committed by Russian military forces including summary killings and the forced deportation of children into Russia from Ukraine. These are not fabrications and it would be beholden on the delegate to reflect on the horrendous enormity of such actions.

This week we have seen once again the terrible impact of Russia’s war of aggression. Russia has unleashed long range strikes of unusual intensity damaging and destroying energy infrastructure and grain storage facilities. Once again, yet more Ukrainian civilians have been killed and, in Odesa, a landmark hotel has been destroyed.

But conversely we may also note that, in its inherent right to self-defence, Ukraine has inflicted significant damage to Russia’s strategic depth following the successful strike on its Black Sea Fleet Headquarters. This is yet another strategic reversal for Russia. In addition, the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group, comprising more than 50 countries continues to pledge support through the provision of arms to help Ukraine restore its territorial integrity. To be clear, this is not a group of subjugated countries bowing to the pressure of a unipolar order; it is the reflection of multiple nations coming together in unity to assist Ukraine in its defence. As has been repeatedly pledged, in this endeavour the UK will stand united with Ukraine for as long as it takes.

Madam Chair, this statement is not intended as a tit-for-tat, but as an overview of verifiable information. The UK welcomes that there will be a Security Dialogue later in the year on ‘Information Integrity’. It is my hope that the Russian delegation reflects on this issue and choses to embrace mature diplomacy and multilateralism. This is what they say they want; now is the time to see it. Thank you.