GENEVA
The deliberate destruction and damage of sites, institutions, and objects of cultural, historical, and religious significance in Ukraine must cease, UN experts said Wednesday.
They expressed deep concern at the continued denigration of the history and identity of the Ukrainian people as a justification for war and hatred.
"One year on since the escalation of hostilities, numerous sites, institutions, and objects of cultural, historical, and religious significance in Ukraine have been partially or entirely destroyed by military attacks by the Russian Federation," said the experts.
"These include memorials and monuments, civilian buildings, museums, theatres, statues, places of worship, cemeteries, libraries, archives, schools, universities, and hospitals."
The experts are Alexandra Xanthaki, special rapporteur on cultural rights; Farida Shaheed, special rapporteur on the right to education, and Nazila Ghanea, special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.
They warned that Russia's attacks on Ukrainian culture, history, and language might amount to an attempt to erase their identity.
They said they had contacted the Moscow government but had not received a reply to their questions.
Damage more than estimated by UNESCO
The number of cultural properties damaged – when they should have been protected under the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict – is probably higher than UNESCO's estimate of more than 240 as of Feb. 15, said the experts.
Other assessments identified more than 1,000 incidents involving cultural infrastructure and heritage sites.
"In our communication to the Russian government, we cited several examples of documented destruction of cultural sites, libraries, and places of worship," said the experts.
The experts expressed great concern about the extent of damage and destruction in violation of international human rights and humanitarian law.
"Reports indicate that some sites were intentionally targeted, including buildings marked as shelters for residents, including children," said the experts.
They said that the indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on densely populated areas, and the damage caused to civilian infrastructure in the process, are of such magnitude as to suggest a deliberate campaign of destruction.
"We are also concerned by the severe targeting of Ukrainian cultural symbols," said the UN-appointed experts.
"Cultural resources – such as repositories of Ukrainian literature, museums, and historical archives – are being destroyed, and there is a widespread narrative of demonization and denigration of Ukrainian culture and identity promoted by Russian officials."
Such actions are accompanied by calls for ideological repression and strict political, cultural, and educational censorship.
Right to identity
"Let us be clear: the Ukrainian people have a right to their identity. Nobody can violate this right," stressed the experts.
The rights are particularly true in occupied parts of Ukraine, including Crimea and eastern Ukraine, where efforts are being made to erase local culture, history, and language in cultural and educational institutions and replace them with the Russian language and culture, and Soviet history.
"Ukrainian history books and literature deemed to be 'extremist' have been seized from public libraries in cities and towns in the occupied territory of Luhansk, Donetsk, Chernihiv, and Sumy Oblasts and destroyed by the occupying power," said the experts.
"Many of those who have spoken out against the occupation and the policy of eradicating the identity, language, and culture of the Crimean Tatar community have been harassed, threatened, arrested, disappeared, and prosecuted," said the experts.
Crimea's ethnic Tatars have faced persecution since Russia's 2014 takeover of the Crimean Peninsula, a situation the Turkish government has decried. Most opposed Moscow's illegal annexation of the peninsula. Since then, Russian authorities have cracked down on the community, banning their assembly and media outlets as well as arbitrarily detaining and jailing numerous activists.
