“Human rights will be threatened on a global scale if Russia’s impunity becomes an incentive for aggressors to break the rules-based international order. Therefore, those responsible for the crime of aggression against Ukraine and war crimes must be held accountable. Only then can we, the international community, hope for sustainable peace,” said Ms. Balčytytė.
The Chancellor drew attention to the wide range of ways in which Russia is acting in the war against Ukraine, directly targeting civilians: through energy, food security, destruction of civilian infrastructure, sexual crimes, torture, and the criminal deportation of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia.
Ms. Balčytytė added that there are strong grounds for believing that the number of Russian crimes is much higher than the crimes currently recorded and investigated by the United Nations.
As a member of the UN Human Rights Council, Lithuania is making every effort and is ready to continue to contribute to ensuring that the perpetrators of these crimes are brought to justice. Otherwise the confidence and trust in the entire international system is at stake. Lithuania strongly supports the establishment of a Special Tribunal to investigate the crime of aggression.
The Chancellor of the Government stressed during her meeting with Ms. Brands Kehris that the involvement of representatives of the Belarusian regime, an accomplice of Russia, and the entities under their control in the crimes committed in Ukraine must also be assessed. There is evidence of Belarusian involvement in the illegal deportations of Ukrainian children.
The parties also discussed the extremely poor and worsening human rights situation in Belarus itself, including the political repression faced by approximately 1,500 political prisoners, who are subject to violence, inhumane conditions of detention, and the absence of an impartial legal process.
