The OSCE publishes tomorrow the findings on the violation of human rights in Ukraine
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will release on Wednesday the findings of its investigation into human rights abuses and atrocities committed in Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine, according to a spokesman for the US Mission to the OSCE.
It is unclear what the report's findings will be at this point.
The report is the product of a week-long fact-finding mission led by three experts selected by Ukraine from a list of OSCE experts. The inquiry came after 45 countries invoked a rare OSCE mechanism - the Moscow Mechanism - used to investigate human rights concerns.
The report was shared with OSCE members on Tuesday and with Ukraine last week, the spokesman said.
Michael Carpenter, the US ambassador to the OSCE, will brief the press after a special meeting of the Permanent Council on Wednesday.
According to the OSCE, the purpose of the experts' mission was to "determine the facts and circumstances related to possible violations of OSCE commitments, and violations and abuses of international human rights law and international humanitarian law" and " to establish the facts and circumstances of possible cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure; and to collect, consolidate and analyze this information in order to present it to the relevant mechanisms of accountability, as well as in national, regional or international courts or tribunals that have, or may in the future have, jurisdiction.”
The OSCE does not have the authority to legally punish Russia if it finds evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but its findings can be given to other bodies that have that authority.
The Moscow mechanism, which was used to launch the fact-finding mission, is a serious step, and according to the OSCE, it has been activated only nine other times since its establishment in 1991. It was most recently used in 2020 to investigate human rights violations in Belarus.
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are all members of the OSCE, reports CNN.
