On July 7, through a press release, it was communicated that Advocate Vrinda Grover has been appointed as a member of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine by the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Ambassador Václav Bálek (Czechia).
The press release highlighted Grover’s expertise stating that she is a practicing advocate in India and has more than 34 years of experience in constitutional law, criminal law, and human rights. “A practicing advocate in India, Grover has more than 34 years of experience in constitutional law, criminal law and human rights. She has appeared as counsel in landmark cases before the Trial Courts, High Courts and the Supreme Court of India as well as before commissions of inquiry and quasi-judicial authorities,” the Council said in its press release.
The Council highlighted the tireless contributions that Advocate Grover has made in the courts, by defending victims and survivors of sexual assault, torture, extrajudicial killings, communal massacres, enforced disappearances, and mob lynching’s. It was further provided that she has also defended journalists, human rights advocates, and death row inmates.
The UN Human Rights Council established the three-person Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine on March 4, 2022, with the task of investigating all the alleged human rights abuses, breaches of international humanitarian law, and related crimes in relation to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
On April 4, 2023, the Council had renewed the aforementioned mandate of the Commission for a further period of one year.
Advocate Grover will be joining Erik Møse (Norway) and Pablo de Greiff (Colombia), who have been serving as Chair and Commissioner of the Commission of Inquiry since March 2022. Notably, the Commission is scheduled to present an oral update to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-fourth session, which is in September 2023, and later submit a report to the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session, in October 2023. A comprehensive report will then be submitted to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-fifth session, to be held in March 2024.
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