The Minister of Veterans Affairs, Temporarily Occupied Territories and IDPs of Ukraine, Oksana Kolyada, spoke about the problems with human rights in annexed Crimea at the UN General Assembly on December 16. This is reported by Krym.Realii.
“On the territory of the occupied Crimea the arrests of civilians, persecution on political, ethnic and religious grounds are taking place. Ukrainian schools are being closed, Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar identities are being destroyed. The occupation authorities and scientific institutions of Russia are destroying the cultural heritage of Ukraine. Exactly a month ago, on November 14, 2019, the Arbitration court of Kaluga made the final decision on eviction of the Crimean Diocese of the OCU from the building of the Cathedral of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Volodymyr and Olga in Simferopol. At the same time, it was also decided to demolish the chapel of the OCU in Yevpatoria, Kolyada said.
She also stressed that more than 100 citizens of Ukraine in Crimea are held prisoners “for obvious political reasons.”
“Throughout 2014, more than 500 thousand Russian citizens were resettled in the Crimea. There is a tough militarization of the Crimea ongoing, ” said the official.
She told what tasks “on the creation of development programs” Ukraine sets for itself.
“We are stepping up work towards the formation of effective information policy. Because it was in the information environment that the aggression was launched. Hybrid war is the realities of today. I would advise all our foreign partners to learn this Ukrainian lesson. We will also maximize the monitoring of the work with the temporarily occupied territories. Special attention is paid to Crimea. Our task is to record all cases of violations of human rights, the interests of the state, in order to develop effective response mechanisms,” said Oksana Kolyada.
As reported, the UN General Assembly on December 18 will vote on the Ukrainian draft resolution on the protection of human rights on the Crimean Peninsula.
Previously the foreign Ministry of Ukraine said that the rights of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars are “constantly violated” in annexed Crimea. The Ministry noted that “Today in Crimea at least 35 Crimean Tatars on trumped-up charges.”
In turn, Minister of foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov on November 27 said that the talks about the violation of human rights in annexed Crimea are a fiction.
The international court of justice in The Hague has given Russia the time until December 8, 2020, to prepare documents in response to Ukraine’s lawsuit, in which Kyiv accuses Moscow of financing terrorism in Eastern Ukraine and racial discrimination in Crimea.
Ukraine filed a lawsuit in 2017. Kyiv believes that Russia violates the international Convention for the suppression of the financing of terrorism, supporting militants in Donbas, and the Convention on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination for the oppression of Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians in annexed Crimea. In June 2019, the international court of justice began hearing the case.
On November 14, the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the protection of human rights in Crimea under Russian occupation.
Previously, the United Nations released the first report of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the violation of human rights in annexed Crimea. The text of the report is published on the website of the organization.
RISU, risu.org.ua