Tens of millions of people in Ukraine are in “potentially mortal danger” as military operations escalate with bombings of major cities and reports of cluster weapons striking civilian targets, the top UN human rights official said on Thursday.
Michelle Bachelet, opening an urgent debate at the UN Human Rights Council to consider setting up a commission of inquiry into alleged human rights violations by Russia, called for an immediate halt to hostilities which have heavily damaged basic essential services.
“My staff in Ukraine have been contacted by several groups who fear persecution if Russian troops advance, including members of the Crimean Tatar community in mainland Ukraine, as well as prominent human rights defenders and journalists,” she told the Geneva forum.
An advance team left the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for the Ukraine region on Thursday to start investigating possible war crimes, its top prosecutor told Reuters in an interview.
Their departure comes hours after Prosecutor Karim Khan announced he would start collecting evidence as part of a formal investigation launched after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
“Yesterday I formulated a team and today they are moving to the region,” Khan said.
Khan said his office would be examining possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by all parties in the conflict.
While Ukraine is not a member of the ICC, it signed a declaration in 2014 giving the court jurisdiction over alleged grave crimes committed on its territory from 2014 onwards regardless of the nationality of the perpetrators. Russia does not recognize the court.