As we mentioned earlier, lawyers of International charitable organization “Environment-People-Law” took part in The ninth meeting of the working group of the Parties to the Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (hereinafter – the Protocol) to the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice on Environmental Matters.
Participation in such meetings not only makes it possible to express at the UN level the legal position and views of the Ukrainian public on certain issues, in particular, on the issue of environmental protection, but also allows to establish an international dialogue in the following coordinate system: the public – the public, the public – state, state -state.
Participation in such events is very important for understanding views of international partners and the world community regarding the situation in Ukraine, crimes of the russian federation, which are being committed on our territory, regarding the reforms currently implemented by our state.
Importantly, views in the UN are pro-Ukrainian! Both staff of the UN and participants of this meeting repeatedly expressed admiration for Ukrainian embroidered shirts, tried to figure out whether similar ornaments are characteristic of their cultures. A representative of Mozambique even promised to make an embroidered shirt for herself.
But not only embroidered shirts were significant in this trip. The UN translator, who heard our lawyers talking in Ukrainian during a walk, recognized our language. He also admitted that he started learning Ukrainian because this language will be very relevant in the light of the work of the international tribunal at the UN aimed to bring the aggressor to justice. It seems that he is not the only translator working at the UN who is “preparing” for the potential consideration of cases aimed to bring the russian federation to justice and believes that such processes will definitely take place.
We were especially pleased with the reaction of the Chairman of the meeting. After the report of the Ukrainian government and presentation of EPL’s position, the Chairman mentioned by name every participant of the meeting who came from Ukraine, expressed his sincere gratitude for our participation and once again recognized the war in Ukraine as a terrible and unacceptable phenomenon in the 21st century. During the break in the work of the working group meeting, in the course of personal communication, the Chairman once again expressed his support for all of Ukraine represented by EPL experts. The Chairman was deeply moved by the heroism of the Ukrainian people in contrast to completely unacceptable actions of the russian federation.
The Chairman of the meeting was not the only person who was so deeply concerned about the situation in Ukraine. One of the guards noticed a blue and yellow brooch on our representative’s jacket. He called these colors the most beautiful in the world now and expressed hope that all the horrors that Ukraine is going through now will end quickly.
We see that so many people in the UN bodies from the bodyguard and to the Chairman of the meeting, support Ukraine. The world community is convinced of the inevitability of russia’s responsibility for what it has done, and some are even preparing to fulfill their duties in this direction. Such sentiments are particularly pleasant for representatives of Ukraine because they demonstrate solidarity with us and a clear intention to punish the guilty. Ukraine still has a difficult and long way to go in the direction towards winning the war, collecting compensation, and punishing the guilty. But having international support, it will be much easier to achieve the set goals and objectives. The Ukrainian caravan has only one option – to move confidently towards its goal – while the enemies can only try to cause trouble somewhere behind bars isolated from the civilized world.
