On 6 March 2024, the Committee on Foreign Policy and Interparliamentary Cooperation held a meeting to consider a draft resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine aimed at ensuring the release and return to Ukraine of captured and illegally detained journalists, as well as to continue discussing Ukraine's strategy for cooperation within the United Nations and reforming the Organisation.
The Committee recommends that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopt the draft Resolution on the Appeal of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the United Nations, Parliaments and Governments of the European Union and NATO member states, the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, International Federation of Journalists, European Federation of Journalists, International NGO Committee to Protect Journalists, International NGO Reporters Without Borders to ensure the release and return to Ukraine of captured and illegally detained journalists (including civilian journalists), introduced by MPs Y. Yurchyshyn and others, taking into account the proposals and amendments of the Committee and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
The adoption of the Appeal of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to authoritative international institutions is due to the need to increase political and diplomatic pressure on the russian federation in order to protect the rights of journalists, ensure their safety, and return captured and illegally detained journalists (including civilian journalists).
The text of the Appeal emphasises the importance of the work of journalists, media workers and citizen journalists in informing the public about violations of national and international law and that, in accordance with Article 79 of the First Protocol Additional to the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, adopted on 8 June 1977, journalists should be treated as civilians.
The members of the Committee discussed the measures taken to implement Ukraine's policy within the UN and agreed on further steps to implement the mechanisms of parliamentary diplomacy in order to discredit the status of the russian federation as a UN member state, to remove it from the UN and to promote Ukraine's position on UN reform.