Briefing Notes: (1) Ukraine; (2) COP29

Geneva, 19 November 2024

Subject: (1) Ukraine; (2) COP29

(1) Ukraine

Today marks the grim milestone of 1,000 days since the Russian Federation launched its full-scale armed attack on Ukraine. Our Office has verified that at least 12,162 civilians have been killed since 24 February 2022, among them 659 children. At least another 26,919 civilians have been injured.

Over the past two days, at least 30 civilians have reportedly been killed in a series of deadly strikes in residential areas in Sumy City, Odesa and Hlukhiv. In the very latest attack on Hlukhiv, which occurred late last night, nine civilians, including a child, were reportedly killed, and 11, including two children, injured. Search and rescue operations are ongoing.

On Monday, the Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Danielle Bell, visited several locations in Zaporizhzhia that had recently been struck by Russian glide bombs. These weapons carry large amounts of explosive material which – when deployed in cities and other populated areas – cause extensive civilian casualties and damage to civilian property.

Among the sites visited was an oncology centre hit by a glide bomb on 7 November at 2:30 PM, where cancer patients were undergoing chemotherapy at the time of the attack. The medical centre sustained severe damage and is now undergoing repairs.

Bell also visited the site of an apartment building where half of the structure was destroyed by another glide bomb, also on 7 November. In this incident, 10 people lost their lives.

Colleagues in our Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine later spoke with a man whose home had been destroyed after two vehicles, thrown through the air by the blast wave on the same day, struck his house. Next door, a family suffered a devastating loss: their 20-year-old son was killed in the attack. His mother, who was severely injured, remains hospitalized. The family’s two-storey home, the largest in the neighborhood, was almost completely levelled by the glide bomb’s direct impact.

As the High Commissioner has said, it has been 1,000 days too many of senseless pain and suffering. Violations of human rights have become the order of the day, both in the conduct of hostilities and in areas under occupation.

We call on all parties to ensure the safety and protection of civilians. Effective measures must also be taken to fully and impartially investigate where there are credible allegations of violations. The violence must stop – for the sake of the people of Ukraine, the people of Russia, and the world.

The High Commissioner repeats his call on the Russian Federation to cease immediately its armed attack and to withdraw all of its military forces from Ukraine. Russia must meet its international obligations under the UN Charter, the order of the International Court of Justice and other applicable law.

(2) COP29

With COP29 in Baku now in its second - and final - week, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has reiterated his call for urgent human rights-based climate action.

We need COP29 to mobilise trillions – not billions – of dollars in climate finance to keep the increase in global average temperature under 1.5 degrees Celsius, and to catalyse more ambitious national climate commitments.

We should expect - and demand - that those that have contributed the most to climate change to date pay more. Those most affected by climate change must have the funds they need to build resilience to climate change as well as access to effective remedy.

These are urgent human rights priorities. This makes it all the more concerning that there has been a discernible lack of progress on many vital issues so far at COP29, and even some efforts to backtrack on previously agreed human rights language.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stresses that the COP29 negotiations are about our collective future. The choice is stark – remain on the current devastating trajectory for the planet and humanity or work for a rapid, equitable and just transition to sustainable economies and societies with human rights at their core.

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