UN refuses to investigate banning Russian paralympians from Rio

The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) refused to investigate banning the Russian Paralympic team from the 2016 Games in Rio, chairperson of Russia's Civic Committee for family, children and motherhood Diana Gurtskaya said on Saturday, Sputnik reports.

In August, Gurtskaya sent a letter to CRDP Chairperson Maria Soledad Cisternas Reyes asking her to probe the ban of Russian Paralympians. CPRD answered that it could not reconsider decisions of the organizations such as the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

“That is an informal and incorrect answer … we are taking as a premise that concrete member states of the International Paralympic Committee have roughly violated the direct ban on discrimination on the basis of disability. These countries are members of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and their actions must be assessed by the United Nations’ supervisory body. We will seek justice with the help of the Russian Foreign Ministry and our representatives in the United Nations,” Gurtskaya told RIA Novosti.