UN High Commissioner for Human Rights presents update on situation in Mariupol

In Geneva, where the 50th Session of the Human Rights Council is taking place, an update on the grave human rights and humanitarian situation in Mariupol has been presented.

The relevant speech was delivered by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, an Ukrinform correspondent reports, referring to the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva.

“The UN High Commissioner outlined in detail a wide range of human rights and international humanitarian law violations in Mariupol, caused by the Russian armed aggression, the extent of destruction, human losses and suffering,” the report states.

According to Bachelet, local residents are struggling with limited access to basic utilities and social services.
Bachelet spoke of the fate of the Ukrainian defenders who were taken as prisoners of war from the Mariupol-based Azovstal steelworks. There are allegations of ill-treatment, but the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) was not able to assess the conditions of detention and treatment in the absence of access to POWs in territory controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups.

Bachelet also mentioned Russian attacks on the Mariupol drama theater and the childcare departments of hospital No. 3, and called on Russia to withdraw troops from Ukraine.