UNGA79: Speech by Minister Veldkamp at the Ministerial side event 'Ensuring Accountability and Protecting Human Rights in Ukraine'

Speech | 25-09-2024

Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

A warm welcome to you all, also on behalf of our co-chairs Albania, Denmark, Guatemala and the Marshall Islands.

And a special welcome to my Ukrainian colleague Minister Andrii Sybiha.

I visited Ukraine in July and what I saw and heard was deeply moving.

One of the people I met was the head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

She said that her staff members are often the first to interact with survivors, victims and witnesses.

Meticulously documenting their suffering, recording their stories and verifying the facts.

The Mission’s findings, presented in excellent reports, have been shocking: the thousands of civilians, including children, who have vanished without trace since the start of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion; the countless Ukrainian men and women who have been detained without cause; the Ukrainian prisoners of war who are being tortured or subjected to sexual violence.

Russia’s invasion in Ukraine was a blatant violation of the UN Charter.

And, for as long as Russia continues its aggression, we will continue to witness large-scale attacks on civilian infrastructure, widespread torture of civilians and prisoners of war, arbitrary detention of civilians, and deportation of children.

We cannot let these international crimes go unpunished.

That’s why tremendous efforts are being made to restore justice for Ukraine, and they are producing results. So there is hope.

In this context, I’d like to express my deepest respect for Andriy Kostin and his team of national prosecutors and investigators.

They are collecting the accounts of survivors, victims and witnesses and gathering facts to form a solid body of evidence.

Evidence that can be used to bring perpetrators to justice.

Together with Ukraine and the EU, we – as the lead nation on Restoring Justice for Ukraine – hosted the ministerial Restoring Justice for Ukraine Conference in The Hague last April.

Significant progress continues to be made under the different tracks of the Restoring Justice framework.

Support for Ukrainian domestic investigations and prosecution of international crimes is growing.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants.

Discussions on a future tribunal for the crime of aggression are ongoing.

Damage claims are being submitted to the Register of Damage in The Hague. And consultations for a claims commission to compensate damage are underway.

The Netherlands is grateful for all the global efforts to pursue accountability, but much remains to be done.

The people of Ukraine need our full support.

That’s why the Netherlands continues to offer technical assistance for prosecution, and is contributing 8 million euros to fund the incredible work of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission for the next two years.

We’re also giving 2 million euros to the International Commission on Missing Persons.

Today’s question is: how can we ensure accountability and justice together?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on how we can work collectively to take action and restore justice.

Thank you.