Statement by Sweden delivered by H.E. Ambassador Veronika Bard.
Mr. President,
Sweden fully aligns itself with the statement made by the European Union.
We thank the High Commissioner for the update.
Today, five years ago, Russia illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula and the city of Sevastopol. Since, the human rights situation has deteriorated. Residents face systematic restrictions of their human rights, including the right to peaceful assembly, expression, association, religion and movement. Thousands of Crimean residents continue to be conscripted by force into the Russian Federation Armed Forces. Other Ukrainian citizens have been deported from Crimea.
The rights of the Crimean Tatars, have been gravely affected: leaders and members of their community are persecuted, their media outlets have been closed and their self-governing body banned.
Arbitrary arrests and detentions and enforced disappearances are recurrent. We call for an immediate release of all arbitrarily or unlawfully detained Ukrainian citizens on the Crimean Peninsula and in Russia, including the 24 Ukrainian crew members detained on the 25 November 2018.
We also call for the immediate release of the Ukrainian filmmaker and writer Oleh Sentsov, Crimean Tatar activist Edem Bekirov and Ukrainian citizen Pavlo Hryb.
We recall the UN General Assembly resolution 72/190, which urges “the Russian Federation to immediately release Ukrainian citizens who were unlawfully detained and judged without regard for elementary standards of justice”.
We reiterate our condemnation of Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea which we continue not to recognize.
Let me end by expressing Sweden’s continued support for the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission; it is a disgrace that it continues to be denied access to Crimea.
Thank you.