A/HRC/27/75 III. Deployment of the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine 7. Against the aforementioned background, on 14 March 2014 OHCHR deployed a Human Rights Monitoring Mission to Ukraine to monitor and report on the human rights situation throughout Ukraine and to propose recommendations to the Government and other actors to address emerging human rights issues as well as the root causes of the situation that was unravelling.1 Initially deployed at the invitation of the Government of Ukraine for a period of three months, on the basis of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between OHCHR and the Government of Ukraine, the mandate of the Human Rights Monitoring Mission has been extended twice, most recently until 15 December 2014. Since April 2014, OHCHR has issued five public monthly reports on the human rights situation in Ukraine, found in the annex hereto, based on the findings of the Human Rights Monitoring Mission teams in Kyiv, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Lviv and Odessa. In line with General Assembly resolution 68/262, the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine monitors the situation in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea from its office in Kyiv and other locations, since it has not been granted access to the peninsula by the Crimean local authorities. 8. The Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine works closely and collaboratively with the Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The Human Rights Monitoring Mission also cooperates with international and regional organizations, other United Nations agencies and programmes, the independent national human rights institution and non-governmental organizations in the accomplishment of its main objectives. IV. Escalation of the conflict in eastern Ukraine 9. The Human Rights Monitoring Mission observed early signs of the rapid deterioration of the security situation as of mid-April 2014, when groups of armed men unlawfully seized public buildings and police and security facilities in cities and towns across the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, in a well-organized and coordinated fashion. The groups set up barricades and checkpoints in order to maintain control of the areas seized. 10. On 14 April 2014, the Government launched a security operation2 to re-establish control over those territories, but in May 2014, a “people’s republic” had been selfproclaimed in both regions, following the holding of so-called referendums that neither the Government of Ukraine nor the international community recognized. Armed groups supporting the self-proclaimed “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk extended the portions of the territories of those regions that had been seized to include most of the main urban areas. A complete breakdown of law and order ensued, with parallel structures 1 2 4 The objectives of the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine are to monitor the human rights situation in the country and provide regular, accurate and public reports to the High Commissioner on the human rights situation and emerging concerns and risks; to recommend concrete follow-up actions to relevant authorities, the United Nations and the international community on how to address the human rights concerns, prevent human rights violations and mitigate emerging risks; to establish facts and circumstances and conduct a mapping of alleged human rights violations committed in the course of the demonstrations and ensuing violence between November 2013 and February 2014; and to establish facts and circumstances related to potential violations of human rights committed during the course of the deployment. Referred to by the Government as an “anti-terrorist operation”.