Human rights headquarters will be established in Ukraine to provide world with information about POWs

This is reported on the president's website. 

At the initiative of the head of the President's Office, Andrii Yermak, the participants at the meeting decided to create an information human rights headquarters, which will publish important updates for the global human rights community and media data on human rights violations during the Russian aggression.

Photo: www.president.gov.ua 

The headquarters will become an information support platform for issues regarding Ukrainian prisoners of war and will work continuously.

“In the 21st century, we have reached the point where there are concentration camps in the center of Europe. I mean not only Olenivka, but also other terrible places. We must put pressure on the Russian Federation from all sides, keep this issue in focus at all international platforms, as well as do everything that depends on us to get information and work on the emergence of an international mission,” Yermak emphasized.

Ukrainian and international human rights organizations were invited to join the work of the headquarters.

In addition, it was proposed to create an interactive exhibition dedicated to Ukrainian prisoners of war held by the Russian Federation.

Dmytro Lubinets, the Commissioner for Human Rights of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada, is convinced that the International Committee of the Red Cross has demonstrated its ineffectiveness and even unwillingness to monitor Russia's compliance with the norms of humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention.

Human Rights Commissioner of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Lubinets. Photo: http://www.president.gov.ua 

“As human rights defenders, we must look for new platforms and mechanisms to cope with this challenge. Therefore, I invite everyone to join this initiative and involve colleagues from all over the world,” Lubinets emphasized.

He also stated that the international community of ombudsmen supports the creation of new missions and platforms where the rights of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages, as well as deported children, whom the Russian Federation continues to take from the temporarily occupied territories, will be raised.

• On July 29, the Russian forces shelled the prison in Olenivka, where Ukrainian prisoners of war were kept, with artillery.  As a result of the shelling, 41 people were killed, and 130 were injured.

• On August 30, it became known that the Azov soldiers could be blown up with a charge from a flamethrower in Olenivka. 

• Employees of the Red Cross recorded the data of about 1,800 defenders of Mariupol, who came out of the Azovstal plant besieged by the Russian forces, but cannot visit them.

• The International Committee of the Red Cross did not stop its work in Ukraine due to concerns about the safety of its workers, as previously reported.

• Zelenskyy said that the Red Cross does not have access to Ukrainian POWs who are being tortured by the Russian forces, but the organization is not trying to do anything to find a way to get to them. On October 13, Ukraine made an "absolute demand'' to the International Committee of the Red Cross to send a mission to the colony in occupied Olenivka, where Ukrainian prisoners of war are held. Otherwise, Ukraine will use all possible informational and diplomatic means to move away from this issue.