The human rights organization Amnesty International wants after severe criticism of their report on the conduct of the war by the Ukrainian army, review the process of its creation. A thorough examination of the process will be carried out by external experts, according to a statement by the organization made available to the German Press Agency on Saturday. The results of this examination are of great urgency.
In the coming week, Amnesty’s board of directors will determine the details of the process after the various national organizations have been able to give their input – including the Ukrainian amnesty organization, whose head Oxanna Pokalchuk resigned in protest at the report.
In the report, Amnesty International accused the Ukrainian army of entrenching itself in residential areas, thereby unnecessarily endangering civilians. Kyiv criticized that by focusing on misconduct by the army of the attacked country, the non-governmental organization had a
Perpetrator-victim reversal operated. Critics also partially questioned the report’s methodology.
Amnesty’s report on violations by the Ukrainian army was extensively covered in Russia’s state media, which hardly reported on alleged crimes committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine. Amnesty International continued to defend the report but expressed regret at the “pain and anger” it had caused.
The German branch of Amnesty said the results were “not communicated with the sensitivity and the precision” been expected from the organization. “This also applies to the subsequent communication and reaction of the International Secretariat to the public criticism.” In a statement on Friday, the organization wanted to be closely involved in the processing, in which power relations would also have to be taken into account. “We want to understand what exactly went wrong and why, so we can learn lessons and improve our human rights work.”
