Ukraine calls on the OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities (OSCE HCNM) Lamberto Zannier to focus on the plight of people living in the occupied Crimea. Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars experience systematic repression, serious human rights violations and discrimination. It is reported by Ukrinform media agency.
“We urge the High Commissioner for Minorities to give his response to the plight of people living in the occupied territories of Crimea and Donbass, in cooperation with the SMM, which carries out monitoring activities there in accordance with its mandate”,- Tsymbaliuk said.
The Ukrainian diplomat noted that the Russian Federation is trying to change the demography of the occupied Crimea, and, moreover, Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars living on the peninsula are experiencing systematic repression, serious human rights violations and discrimination.
“The number of violations of religious freedom and the right to peaceful assembly has increased significantly during the year. Russian border guards in the occupied Crimea unreasonably detain activists who cross the administrative border between Crimea and mainland Ukraine and try to force Ukrainian citizens to agree to secret cooperation with the Russian authorities”,- he added.