ZMINA takes part in OSCE Ministerial Council in Stockholm

On December 1-3, 2021, Maria Kurinna, International Advocacy Manager at ZMINA, attended the 28th OSCE Ministerial Council and the Parallel Civil Society Conference, organized by Civic Solidarity Platform, in Stockholm.

At the opening of the OSCE Ministerial Council, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Ann Linde called on fellow ministers from 57 countries to step up support for Ukraine amid new security challenges coming from Russia.

OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid underscored the need for the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to be granted immediate access to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba held bilateral talks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Kuleba and Blinken discussed the implementation of a comprehensive deterrence package against Russia, which is designed to discourage Russia from further aggressive actions. It includes political and diplomatic pressure, preparation of tough economic sanctions in case of increased aggression, and enhanced security and defense cooperation with Ukraine.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba held talks with Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

Kuleba: “We discussed the need to deter Russia, in particular, to speed up work on economic restrictions that will be able to take a toll on Russian economy if Russia decides to launch a new wave of aggression against Ukraine.”

Kuleba also held a separate event “Crimea Platform: Moving Forward”. Olha Skrypnyk, Chair of the Board of the Crimean Human Rights Group, took the floor as a representative of the Ukrainian civil society. Skrypnyk called for increased pressure on Russia to release Kremlin prisoners.

The event was attended by distinguished foreign guests: foreign ministers of Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, the Czech Republic, representatives of the foreign offices of Georgia, Turkey, the EU, the United States, and Germany.

Maria Kurinna, along with representatives of the NGOs from Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, took part in a meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands Ben Knapen.

Kurinna thanked the Government of the Netherlands for the support provided to the Ukrainian civil society, human rights defenders, the LGBTQI+ community, and the population affected by the armed conflict.

Kurinna provided information on the human rights situation in the occupied Crimea and Donbas. She urged to support Ukraine in the release of Kremlin’s prisoners, Vladyslav Yesypenko, Nariman Dzhelial, and others. She expressed concern over the mass detentions of Crimean Tatars, the indigenous people of Crimea.

Kurinna spoke of increasing pressure exerted by the Russian occupying power on citizen journalists and lawyers, who defend their clients in politically motivated cases. The ZMINA representative stressed that it was Russian proxies who violated the longest ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.

The representative of ZMINA also spoke about many unresolved problems of internally displaced persons who have remained without housing for eight years and face some bureaucratic obstacles put by Ukraine daily. 

She called on the Dutch government to strengthen the deterrence package against Russia amid the build-up of Russian military capabilities on the border with Ukraine, to support and encourage other foreign colleagues to work within the Crimea Platform and to call on Russia to release all political prisoners, Ukrainian citizens.

Kurinna met with OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Kairat Abdrakhmanov. She pointed out the need for increased support for human rights defenders and political prisoners, Crimean Tatars.

As a reminder, the OSCE Ministerial Council is the central decision-making and governing body of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. It is the OSCE’s final high-level event aimed at reviewing the Organization’s activities over the outgoing year and setting strategic guidelines for the coming year.