17th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues - Situation of Human Rights in Crimea
17th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
“Situation of human rights in Crimea”
Concept Note
Date: April 16
Time: 2:45 pm - 4:00 pm
Location: Conference Room 8, UNHQ, New York
Special Guest: Mr. Akhtem Chiygoz, Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People
Panelists:
· Ms. Gayana Yuksel, Ph.D. Journalist, Member of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis and Editor-in-Chief of the QHA (Crimean News Agency) and Radio Hayat;
· Ms. Elmaz Asan, Broadcast Journalist for ATR;
· Mr. Suleyman Mamutov, adviser to the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People.
Moderator of the discussion: Ms. Ayla Bakkalli, Representative of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People; Executive Member of the World Congress of Crimean Tatars.
Background:
4 years have passed since the beginning of the temporary occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine (hereinafter – Crimea), by the Russian Federation.
Occupied Crimea, closed for any form of international control and monitoring, is now an area for systematic violations and abuses of human rights and fundamental freedoms, targeting, first of all, the Ukrainian activists and the indigenous people of Crimea – Crimean Tatars. They are groundlessly detained and imprisoned, activists are disappearing, their families and friends are facing intimidations. The Mejlis, a representative body of the Crimean Tatar People, has been banned.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in its 2017 Report on human rights situation in Crimea clearly affirms the dire situation of the citizens of Ukraine, in particular indigenous Crimean Tatars, on the occupied territory.
By adopting the UN General Assembly Resolutions “Territorial integrity of Ukraine” and “Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine” the UN has reconfirmed its respect to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders, condemned illegal actions of the Russian Federation and reaffirmed the commitments to protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms. Moreover, these resolutions defined the Russian Federation as an occupying power and placed all responsibility for human rights violations in Crimea upon the Russian Federation.
Furthermore, the occupying power continues ignoring the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) provisional decision made on April 27, 2017. The respective decision, in particular, ordered to the Russian Federation to “refrain from maintaining or imposing limitations on the ability of the Crimean Tatar community to conserve its representative institutions, including the Mejlis”.
This event will give an opportunity to discuss the latest developments in Crimea, including the recent so-called elections, as well as receive firsthand testimonies from the former Kremlin political prisoner – Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, Akhtem Chyigoz.