As delivered by Acting Political Counselor Jennifer Bosworth
to the Permanent Council, Vienna
June 12, 2014
We look forward to hearing more about the Secretary General’s meetings in Kharkiv with the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) and what he gleaned from those with respect to opportunities for the Secretariat and the rest of us to best support the SMM.
We have seen that the Secretary General also traveled to Moscow and Rostov. As colleagues know, UNHCR is the international organization with the lead on refugee issues — that is why it is so important that the UNHCR have continuous, free, and unfettered access, including in and around Rostov, in order to be able to adequately assess the situation with regard to reported refugee populations. We call on the Russian Federation to facilitate unhindered access for UNHCR.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
