On Friday, May 15, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, with the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Ukraine, held the 13th session of the Crimean Discussion Club. As part of the webinar on the “Recognition of the genocide and counteraction to discrimination against the Crimean Tatar people”, experts called on Ukraine to comply with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Participants also emphasized the importance of a court decision recognizing the deportation of Crimean Tatars as an act of genocide.
Speakers at the webinar were:
– Eskender Bariiev – Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, member of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people (moderator);
– Iryna Starovytska, Project Manager of the Friedrich Nauman Foundation for Freedom (Introductory address);
– Refat Chubarov – Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people;
– Gulnara Bekirova – Historian, Ph.D.
– Oliver Loode – member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in 2014-2016;
– Oleksandr Poznyak – lawyer;
– Borys Babin – Doctor of Law, Professor.
Participants discussed the following topics:
1. Investigation of the Deportation of the Crimean Tatar people
2. Recognition of the Deportation of the Crimean Tatar people as an act of genocide
3. Effective counteraction to discrimination of the Crimean Tatar people
4. Implementation of the collective rights of the Crimean Tatar people
The speakers noted that the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people should be qualified precisely as genocide – in the face of proving the intent of the Soviet government to carry out the complete or partial extermination of the corresponding ethnic group as an indigenous people, depriving them of their historical homeland and destroying their national elite during the long-lasting repressions of 1920-1930.
According to experts, the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people as an indigenous people from their historical homeland in Crimea is still an incomplete (ongoing) international crime that has no statute of limitations. Ukraine has the proper material and procedural jurisdiction for its investigation and final qualification; the legal recognition of this deportation as an act of genocide will be final after the entry into force of the relevant decision of the competent court. Thus, the webinar participants emphasized the importance of a court decision recognizing the deportation of the Crimean Tatars as an act of genocide and called on Ukraine to comply with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
In the framework of the 13th session of the CDC, the experts developed recommendations for the Ukrainian authorities, which will be sent to the relevant government bodies. They will also be published on the CTRC website.
The event was supported by the Representative Office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Ukraine.