We call on the South African Government to support the Suspension of Russia from the Human Rights Council and to propagate the values of human rights, respect for international law and democracy, that are cornerstones of South Africa’s constitution.
In the Bucha massacre in Ukraine, where over 400 bodies have been found so far after Russian forces retreated from the area. Among them, people tortured, women raped, and men shot in their heads with their arms tied. The situation is the same or worse in other cities and villages in the northern part of Ukraine (Hostomel, Vorzel, Irpin, Borodyanka, Dmytrivka, Motyzhyn, Makariv, Dymer, Kozarovychi, Katyuzhanka and others) and it is probably much worse in the territories that are still occupied or surrounded by Russian forces, such as Mariupol.
The evidence collected by the OHCHR, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and many other international organizations suggested that Russia is responsible for widespread and systematic human rights violations. HRW interviewed 10 people and documented some of the war crimes but Ukrainian NGOs (including ‘Ukraine 5AM’ Coalition) have already documented hundreds of them.
In the cities and villages of the Kyiv region Russian soldiers broke into the residences of local habitants, robbing them, kidnapping civilians, raping women, conducting interrogations, simulating executions and demonstratively executing people (including for their refusal to comply with the requirements of vacating the house, sharing food, digging trenches). Mass graves with murdered civilians were found in the cities of Bucha and Motyzhyn. Bodies of the leaders of the municipal government were found there, among others.
At the same time, many residents were deprived of the opportunity to leave the occupied settlements. The so-called “green corridors” mostly did not work, as a result, people tried to flee from the war on their own. Their cars were shot, dozens of shelled and burned cars were found on the Zhytomyr highway (between the settlements of Myla and Stoyanka). There were burned bodies in those cars and shot civilians lying on the road near the destroyed vehicles. The Russian military killed civilians and tried to burn their bodies.
The Russian military tried to conceal their crimes by deliberately killing journalists who tried to provide media coverage of the war. Just in March, when the Russian military seized the territory of the Kyiv region, they killed four and wounded two foreign and Ukrainian journalists and cameramen.
Russia, for its part, called for the Security Council meeting to discuss the “provocations of the Ukrainian army in Bucha” yesterday. It continues to state that all the atrocities were “staged” by the Ukrainian army despite abundant evidence (from satellite images to eyewitness reports) of the opposite.
Russia is turning Ukraine, a sovereign country with 43 million inhabitants, into ruins. In the last 42 days, Russia’s attack has destroyed at least 274 health facilities, 869 educational institutions and 6 800 residential buildings. The death toll – currently thousands of civilians, including hundreds of children – is growing every day. As attacks intensify, this death toll is likely to increase more rapidly. More than 4,500,000 Ukrainians and also thousands of non-Ukrainians (including South Africans) have been turned into refugees, and another 6,000,000 into internally displaced persons, overnight.
The massive humanitarian crisis in Ukraine is caused by Russia’s unjust and unprovoked full-fledged invasion of Ukraine.
Under these circumstances, we believe Russia has no right to sit on the UN Human Rights Council. Its presence there discredits the entire idea of human rights protections. In making this call, we remember the words of South Africa’s late Archbishop Desmond Tutu “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
Therefore, we ask you to vote for Russia’s exclusion from the Human Rights Council on Thursday.