MFA Statement on participation of the Russian Delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
28.06.2019 / 15:35 | Aktualizováno: 27.01.2020 / 11:18
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs regards the decision of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) of 26 June 2019 as an effort of the Assembly to continue a dialogue with Russia and to protect human rights of Russian citizens in the future. It aims at enabling effective access to Council of Europe´s human rights mechanisms and the European Court of Human Right in particular.
The adopted resolution calls on the Russian authorities to immediately pay all fees due to the Council of Europe budget, release the illegally captured Ukrainian sailors, cooperate with the investigation team in bringing those responsible for the downing Flight MH17 to justice, prevent violations of human rights of LGBTI people in Chechen Republic and investigate the murder of Boris Nemtsov. PACE has further invited its Monitoring Committee to present a report on the honouring of obligations and commitments by the Russian Federation by April 2020.
The PACE resolution does not affect the consistent position of the Government of the Czech Republic on the Russian annexation of Crimea. As stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Tomáš Petříček at the most recent Committee of Ministers meeting in Helsinki in May 2019, the annexation represents gross violation of international law.