Senior UN human rights official in Ukraine, new report out on Friday

GENEVA/KYIV (15 May 2014) – UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic is in Ukraine for a five-day visit to follow up on the human rights situation in the country and to launch the second monthly report of the 34-strong team deployed in Ukraine in March by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Simonovic, who arrived in Kyiv late Wednesday, will meet Government officials, civil society organisations and the Ombudsperson among others. On Saturday, he is due to visit Donetsk and on Sunday he will head to Odessa.

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine was established by the High Commissioner for Human Rights following an earlier mission to the country by the Office. The mission has been deployed to various locations throughout Ukraine to help establish the facts surrounding allegations of human rights violations and serve to de-escalate tensions.

The monitoring mission issued its first report in April and will issue its second monthly report on Friday, 16 May, simultaneously in Kyiv and Geneva. The report will be made available at 10h30 Geneva time / 11h30 Kyiv time, when it will be posted on the website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at www.ohchr.org.

Simonovic will hold a press conference in Kyiv on Friday at 11h00 local time at Hotel Ukraine and will be webcast live on www.uacrisis.org.

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact:
In Kyiv: Victoria Andrievska (+38 044 254-0035 / victoria.andrievska@unic.org)
In Geneva: Rupert Colville (+41 22 917 9767 / rcolville@ohchr.org ) or Ravina Shamdasani (+41 22 917 9169 /rshamdasani@ohchr.org) or Cécile Pouilly (+41 22 917 9310 / cpouilly@ohchr.org)

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