Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the activities of neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine.
Answered by Wendy Morton - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
There are several peripheral groups with neo-Nazi sympathies in Ukraine, some of which have made statements in support of white supremacism. We take seriously any reports of violent extremism and hate crime in Ukraine.
The UK is committed to pursuing a comprehensive human rights agenda in Ukraine, including taking action against racially-motivated hate crime. Since 2014, the UK has co-sponsored a UN resolution supporting quarterly debates of reports on Ukraine by the Monitoring Mission of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The UK Government provides financial support to the Monitoring Mission, which works to report and reduce human rights violations and abuses in Ukraine.
Whilst Ukraine has cooperated fully with the Monitoring Mission, we remain extremely concerned by the restrictions of access for human rights bodies to the non-government controlled areas of eastern Ukraine and illegally annexed Crimea, and the resulting limited reporting on those areas. It is essential that independent investigations take place to deliver accountability for serious allegations of hate crime in all of Ukraine. We will continue to work closely with the Ukrainian government, our international partners and local agencies to support efforts to report, investigate and reduce incidences of hate crime in Ukraine.