Mezentseva announces Ukraine’s victory in PACE

Although the PACE didn't limit Russia's powers in the Assembly, as demanded by the Ukrainian delegation, this decision is still an intermediate victory for Ukraine.

The Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the PACE Maria Mezentseva stated this, as the press service of the "Servants of the People" party reports.

What's positive in the PACE decision?

✅ In the debate on Russia's powers in the PACE, the Ukrainian delegation raised the issue of Crimea and Donbas, human rights violations by Russia. In particular, the international community was told about torture in the Isolation prison in temporarily occupied Donetsk.

✅ The Assembly adopted by an absolute majority an amendment stating that confirming the authority of the Russian delegation isn't a recognition of its right to annex/occupy the territory. In fact, the PACE has once again stressed that it doesn't recognize the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation.

The resolution adopted contains the provisions for which our delegation fought the most and which distinguish it from last year's resolution, when the powers of the Russian Federation in the PACE were also appealed against.

The Assembly called on the Russian Federation:

✅ to implement all previously adopted resolutions on Crimea, Donbas, and protection of human rights in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine;

✅ to implement the recommendations planned by the Venice Commission in its conclusion on the draft amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation;

✅ not to violate fundamental freedoms and human rights, in particular freedom of expression, assembly, and association, and release Navalnyi, and peaceful demonstrators and his supporters;

✅ not to pass new laws that impose additional restrictions on the activities of civil society, journalists, and opposition politicians and bring them in line with Council of Europe standards;

✅ to exclude the School of Political Studies of the Council of Europe from the list of undesirable organizations.

Representatives of the delegations of Moldova, Austria, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Lithuania, Germany, Georgia, San Marino, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Latvia, France, Croatia, Poland, Switzerland, Slovenia, Liechtenstein, Turkey, and Slovakia didn't vote for the decision to confirm the powers of the Russian delegation.

"Europe doesn't want to isolate Russia because the beast in the cage is becoming too evil and greedy. But our task is to keep the pressure on the occupants and human rights violators throughout Europe," said Maria Mezentseva, the Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the PACE and a People's Deputy from the Servant of the People Party.