A draft resolution based on the report prepared by Egidijus Vareikis (Lithuania, EPP) and supported by the Committee urges all member states to "use their joint political efforts to put an end to this conflict and the sufferings of the civil population."
Read alsoOHCHR reports 544 conflict-related civilian casualties in Donbas since Jan 1The Assembly therefore calls on all sides of the war to "release and exchange all prisoners of war and people captured during the war, and exchange all mortal remains". It also urges to "respect the civilian nature of infrastructure and ensure the protection of civilians and their full access to essential services."
The Assembly urges the Russian authorities to "cease all financial and military support to the illegal armed groups in Donetsk and Luhansk regions;" "ensure the respect of human rights and security of all the people living in annexed Crimea," and "ensure unhindered access to annexed Crimea to international organisations, international monitoring bodies and human rights non-governmental organisations."
The Assembly urges the Ukrainian authorities to bring the Criminal Code and Code on Criminal Procedure of Ukraine in line with the provisions of international humanitarian law and international criminal law, adopt legislation on humanitarian demining actions; revise the Law on humanitarian assistance to facilitate the procedure of delivery of humanitarian assistance to the war affected territories.
Ukraine should also ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as soon as possible, which will allow effective investigations into concrete cases of violations of international humanitarian law during the war in Ukraine to be made.
The PACE is to discuss the draft resolution at its next plenary meeting in Strasbourg, scheduled for January 22-26.
More than 4 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. The armed conflict has taken the lives of more than 10,000 people. The number of people injured during the war has reached more than 24,000. Besides, more than 1.6 million people are internally displaced and almost half a million people are seeking asylum in other countries, most of them in the Russian Federation.
