20/03/2015 Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
The Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) will hold on Monday 23 March in Paris a hearing on missing persons during the conflict in Ukraine in the framework of the preparation of a report on the subject due to be submitted to the Assembly during its plenary session in June 2015. The rapporteur, Jim Sheridan (United Kingdom, SOC) is the former Committee’s rapporteur on Europe’s missing persons.
The General-Lieutenant of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Vovk, Chief of the main Investigative Division of the Security Service of Ukraine, who personally participates in the ATO in the Eastern Ukraine, will represent the Ukrainian authorities and will present the latest official data on the numbers of persons, killed and missing, during the conflict in Ukraine.
Hanna Mokrousova, from Louhansk, coordinator of the “Vostok-SOS” NGO will speak about the missing persons especially in the oblast territory of Louhansk and Donetsk and Eskender Bariiev, Coordinator of the Committee for the defence of human rights of the Crimean Tatar people will provide testimonies on the cases of missing and abducted persons in Crimea.
Following the decision by the Russian parliamentary delegation to suspend all official contact with the PACE, the Russian authorities will not be represented. The Russian NGO "Soldiers' Mothers of St. Petersburg" will be represented by its Executive Director Olga Alekseeva, who will speak about cases of deaths of Russian soldiers in unidentified circumstances.
The hearing is open to the press. It will be held on Monday 23 March 2015 at 10 a.m. in the Council of Europe Office in Paris (55 avenue Kléber, 75016 PARIS, Metro: Boissière)
Contact: PACE Communication Division, [email protected], tel. +33 3 88 41 31 93.