UN human rights monitoring mission works through ‘wide network of contacts’ in Crimea

The UN human rights monitoring mission is not present in Crimea but works through a wide network of contacts.

Ms. Fiona Frazer, the Head of the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said this in an interview with the Crimea Inform magazine.

"Indeed, the mission is not present in Crimea, but we have a wide network of contacts both on the peninsula and in the mainland Ukraine," Frazer noted.

According to her, the monitoring mission conducts interviews with different people on the peninsula and makes regular monitoring visits to the administrative boundary line with the annexed Crimea. In particular, the mission experts regularly conduct interviews with different people, particularly victims, their relatives and witnesses of human rights violations, lawyers, journalists, entrepreneurs, teachers, doctors, social workers, human rights defenders, representatives of public, religious and political organizations.

The head of the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine stressed that the main challenge for the organization's activities on the peninsula is the lack of direct access to the victims of human rights violations and places of their detention in Crimea, the inability to monitor court sessions, police investigations and the inability to communicate with representatives of the local authorities.

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