People should be motivated to join the army, not forced – Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner
Pravda Ukraine
Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) Commissioner for Human Rights, believes that the armed forces should be replenished through people’s motivation, not by force.
Source: Lubinets in an interview for Suspilne
Quote: “The military cannot walk the streets detaining Ukrainian citizens. Who would benefit from that? There must be a clear procedure based first and foremost on motivation, so that Ukrainian citizens join the army by their own volition and are not forced to do so.”
Details: Lubinets believes that recruitment centres should be set up in Ukraine that would assess people’s education and state of health. If a person cannot fight on the front line, they could control a drone or work in logistics support, for instance; people could choose a unit and military specialism themselves.
Quote: “Do you know what the difference is between the enlistment office representatives and the Ukrainian citizen who was thrown onto a bus? The enlistment office representatives are officials who represent the state. We analyse their actions in the context of protecting human rights. Should a Ukrainian citizen defend his state? Yes, that is also a norm in the Constitution. Should evasion be punished? Yes. But we are also analysing the mobilisation process here. Are enlistment offices authorised to detain a person and throw them onto a bus? No. Should they be authorised to do so? No. As a government official, I must assess things purely from the point of view of the law.”
Background:
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on 3 April that Russia is preparing to mobilise an additional 300,000 servicemen by 1 June. Asked how many people would be mobilised into the Ukrainian army this year, Zelenskyy said, “We don’t need half a million.”
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