Human Rights Watch displayed a map where Crimea is marked as part of Russia – Lubinets
In their report on the use of anti-personnel mines, the Human Rights Watch displayed a map where Crimea is marked as part of Russia.
Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, announced this on Facebook and posted the screenshots.
"The international non-governmental human rights organization Human Rights Watch published a report on the use of anti-personnel mines, marking Crimea as part of Russia on their map. Of course, the map has since been removed from the website. However, the fact remains a fact! If human rights organizations make such 'mistakes', are they really mistakes or a conscious legitimization of the occupation? We are interested to hear an explanation!” wrote the Commissioner.
Lubinets also commented on the organization's allegations regarding Ukraine supposedly using anti-personnel mines.
According to him, Ukraine remains committed to its obligations according to international law and has always shown openness to investigations into any allegations.
"At the same time, Ukraine has reliable evidence that Russia is making every effort to discredit Ukraine, primarily for the purpose of undermining the military support received by it. Therefore, we urge all our partners to take this factor into account before drawing their conclusions about any accusations against Ukraine!" said the Commissioner.
Still, he admitted that the problem of anti-personnel mines usage has existed for the past nine years: "I will explain one important thing: this problem exists because Ukraine has been facing the enemy since 2014. An enemy that has much more weapons of different sorts and is using its entire arsenal against our people. Despite this, Ukraine appealed to the UN, saying that due to the war it cannot fully guarantee abidance by the Ottawa Convention (the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction), back in 2018. Russia, on their part, is not a party to this Convention."
As IMI reported, on January 31, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report on the UAF allegedly using PFM-1 anti-personnel landmines around Izyum (Kharkiv oblast), which is a war crime. At the same time, the Kharkiv Human Rights Group and the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union said that such reports feed into Russian propaganda and undermine public support for continued military aid to Ukraine from Western governments.
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