The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine on the fourth anniversary of the prohibition of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people by the so-called Court of Crimea calls on the world community to continue to put pressure on Russia and strengthen sanctions in order to ensure the implementation of the UN Order and to stop the oppression of the Crimean Tatar people on the peninsula. This is emphasized in a statement released on Sunday by the Foreign Ministry.
“The ban of the Crimean Tatars' supreme representative and executive body by the occupation authorities was another evidence of a gross violation of international humanitarian law and human rights, a manifestation of racial discrimination, an element of a large-scale campaign of intimidation and prosecution of those who disagree with the occupation of the peninsula and the fake results of the so-called referendum of March 16, 2014 organized virtually at gunpoint by the machine guns of the occupying forces and declared illegal by the international community”,- the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs underlined.
The Ministry noted that, by banning Mejlis, Russia violated fundamental rules of law, including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as well as the right of indigenous people of Ukraine and Crimea to representation and self-government, which is provided by the Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the United Nations, adopted on September 13, 2007.
Violation of international law by Russia in relation to Crimean Tatars is now also being considered by the UN International Court of Justice, which on April 19, 2017 ordered, among other things, Russia “to refrain from accepting or maintaining restrictions on the ability of Crimean Tatars to retain their own representative institutions, including Mejlis.”
“Russia has deliberately ignored this Order of the UN ICJ for three years already. The issue of Russia's non-compliance with the Order will be considered by the International Court of Justice of the United Nations when considering the merits of the case. In this regard, we urge the international community to continue to put pressure on Russia and strengthen sanctions to ensure the implementation of the UN ICJ Order and ending the oppression of the Crimean Tatar community in Crimea”,- the report said.
We remind that on April 26, 2016, the so-called Supreme Court of Crimea illegally decided to ban the activities of the representative body of the Crimean Tatars – the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. It was recognized as an extremist organization and banned in the occupied Crimea and the Russian Federation. For the fourth year, the CTRC team, along with reputable international organizations and institutions, has been fighting the illegal decision of the invaders.