Unifeed
UN / TORTURE PREVENTION
STORY: UN / TORTURE PREVENTION
TRT: 02:24
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 14 OCTOBER 2022, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UN flag outside UN Headquarters
14 OCTOBER 2022, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press room dais
3. Wide shot, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Alice Jill Edwards, Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, United Nations:
“The Commission of Inquiry has reported back on sizable allegations. My office can receive allegations from victims. So, of course I'm reminding all parties to the conflict to follow international law. Today in the session I put out an offer to visit any parties that are in conflict with one another with the preference to be able to visit both countries. And just to say, I am worried about the expulsion and or resignation of Russia from the Council of Europe, the window for victims to bring cases before the European Court of Human Rights Under Rule 39 for urgent measures or continuing long standing cases, ended in September.”
5. Wide shot, press room dais
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Claude Heller, Chairperson, Committee against Torture, United Nations:
“The problem is that Russia and Ukraine are not state parties to the Rome Statute. But Ukraine recognized the competence of the ICC since the situation of the annexation of Crimea in 2014. So, in this sense they are looking to have a special tribunal that could be created, of course not by the Security Council, because at the Security Council you will confront the Russian veto, but the possibility that another procedure through the General Assembly could be established.”
7. Wide shot, press room dais
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Suzanne Jabbour, Chairperson, Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, United Nations:
“There is a need for immediate of course, but our mandate does not allow us to take this action. There is other inquiry mission established to do that. It's this what I'm saying, but of course the situation is alarming and there is a need for immediate action, not to prevent torture to make perpetrators accountable, and to put an end to that.”
9. Wide shot, end of presser
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Alice Jill Edwards today (14 Oct) said, there have been “sizable allegations” of torture in the Ukraine conflict and expressed concern over the “expulsion and / or resignation” of Russia from the Council of Europe, noting that “the window of victims to bring cases before the European Court of Human Rights,” ended in September.
Talking to reporters in New York after presenting her first report to the General Assembly, Edwards reminded all parties to the conflict “to follow international law.”
She said that during her intervention at the General Assembly, she “put out an offer” to visit both Russia and Ukraine.
Joining Edwards, the Chairperson of the Committee against Torture, Claude Heller, said, “the problem is that Russia and Ukraine are not state parties to the Rome Statute. But Ukraine recognized the competence of the ICC since the situation of the annexation of Crimea in 2014.”
Heller said Ukraine is “looking to have a special tribunal that could be created, of course not by the Security Council, because at the Security Council you will confront the Russian veto, but the possibility that another procedure through the General Assembly could be established.”
For her part, Suzanne Jabbour, who is the Chairperson of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, said, there is a need for immediate action, of course, but our mandate does not allow us to take this action. There is other inquiry mission established to do that.”
She said action is urgent not just to prevent torture, but “to make perpetrators accountable, and to put an end to that.”
Download
There is no media available to download.