Kyiv trying to divert attention from its problems with Crimea resolution - Russian Foreign Ministry
SUZDAL. Nov 16 (Interfax) - The resolution of the United Nations humanitarian committee was made to order and has no legal force, head of European cooperation on human rights at the Russian Foreign Ministry's department for humanitarian cooperation and human rights, Stepan Kuzmenkov, said.
"The resolution has nothing in common with the protection of human rights and was made to political order. Kyiv effectively took advantage of the human rights topic so as to throw on the Third Committee a topic that has nothing to do with it - the Crimean territorial issue," Kuzmenkov said at a roundtable, 'The application of international standards in the field of human rights by the Russian Federation regional commissioners'.
With this resolution Ukraine is trying to divert attention from problems in its territory relating "to the persecution of dissidents, pointless arrests of individuals not sharing the point of view of the authorities in Kyiv," as well as other human rights problems, he said.
"The Third Committee resolutions have no legal consequences, no legal force. In the meantime we will continue to endeavor to get our vision across. We believe such resolutions are not contributing to further equal dialogue, let alone on human rights," Kuzmenkov said.
The fact that most countries at the time of voting either abstained or walked out of the room means that they "don't want to have anything in common" with the statements made in the resolution, he said.
The UN Third Committee (for social and humanitarian affairs) voted for the resolution condemning the human rights situation in Crimea in the early hours of Wednesday.
