Geneva, 27 February 2024
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, friends!
Greetings from Latvia!
Human rights is a topic that we in Latvia understand very well. The reason is that basic human rights were denied to us for fifty long years of Soviet occupation. We lived in a totalitarian state where the state was telling us what we were allowed to think, what we were not allowed to think, and human dignity and basic human rights were simply not an option.
Having regained our independence, we understand all the better how important it is to stand up for human rights wherever we see a violation. And there is one very clear violation that we in Latvia see as intolerable. That is Russia’s war of aggression against its neighbour, Ukraine, where human rights are violated on a daily basis. The bombing of schools, the bombing of hospitals, the forced abduction of children and forced assimilation into the Russian language and culture against the will of the children, against any semblance of the right of the individual, of human rights.
Russia also has a terrible disinformation campaign, which is going throughout the world telling a false narrative of what they are actually doing in Ukraine; which is violating human rights.
Latvia stands up for human rights in any country, but especially I want to underscore the fact that we must all stand united together in opposing and denouncing Russia’s blatant violation of human rights in Ukraine, and we must stand with Ukraine until Ukraine ultimately succeeds in freeing all of its territory and the aggressor is gone.
Totalitarian states, authoritarian states seem strong on some level. But we as freedom-loving countries, as democracies, when we all stand together, we are much, much stronger. Russia’s aggression in Ukraine can be stopped. The fight for human rights can succeed when we all work together.
Thank you very much!