Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has urged the UN Human Rights Council to persuade Russia to grant human rights organizations access to Russia-annexed Crimea to evaluate the human rights situation.
He was speaking at the High Level Segment of the 31st regular session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, according to Ukrainian News.
"Our Council should urge the Russian Federation as the occupying power to open Crimea to conventional and monitoring mechanisms of international human rights organizations," he said.
He stressed that a comprehensive evaluation of the human rights situation in Crimea should be measured only by legal standards in accordance with existing international legal instruments, not by political considerations of the occupying authorities.
He suggested that the recent mission to Crimea of the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe may facilitate the permanent access to Crimea.