Romania has joined a group of 44 Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) member states to invoke the OSCE Moscow Mechanism to assess the impact on human rights and the humanitarian situation caused by the Russian Federation's aggression in Ukraine.
According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE), the invocation of this mechanism facilitates the sending of an OSCE expert mission to establish the facts and circumstances surrounding possible contraventions of OSCE commitments and violations and abuses of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by Russia's forces in Ukraine, Agerpres.ro informs
"Romania's decision to support this action continues our country's efforts to strongly condemn the Russian military aggression against Ukraine, and to back Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within internationally recognised borders."
A March 3 meeting of the OSCE Standing Committee reported that 45 countries, including Romania, had invoked Article 12 of the Document of the Moscow Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE known as the Moscow Mechanism to send an expert mission to Ukraine to investigate possible violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, as well as possible cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
As the Moscow Mechanism is invoked, a mission of impartial experts will be set up to investigate violations of the human dimension commitments of Russia, an OSCE member state.