On Wednesday, July 8, a committee hearing was held on the issue of “Problematic issues of legislative regulation and implementation of state policy to ensure the rights of indigenous peoples and national minorities”. At the event, the Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, a member of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Eskender Bariiev spoke and proposed the formation of a working group under the committee on the development of the draft law on indigenous peoples of Ukraine, from the committee and Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people to forward the draft law to the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He expressed the hope that the draft law on the indigenous peoples of Ukraine will be registered in the Verkhovna Rada by August 9, International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
During his speech, Bariiev made recommendations and focused on the following:
Article 11 of the Constitution of Ukraine notes the existence of indigenous peoples and national minorities.
In 2014, the Decree of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine recognized the Crimean Tatar people as the indigenous people of Ukraine and Ukraine joined the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
A member of Mejlis recalled that in accordance with the Action Plan for the implementation of the human rights strategy, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine was instructed to prepare a draft law on the indigenous peoples of Ukraine before the fourth quarter of 2016. Working groups have been created, but there has not been any progress.
He emphasized that the law of Ukraine on national minorities is morally outdated, and the law on indigenous peoples of Ukraine is absent altogether. That is, according to Bariiev, in Ukraine there is no state ethnopolitics, which requires an urgent legal settlement.
Also, the Head of the Board of the CTRC drew attention to the fact that issues of legal regulation of ethno-national policy for a warring country should be the number one issue in the context of the country's national security.
“Hearings and a round table were held in 2017 and 2019, but we do not see any results with the exception of statements”,- Bariev said.
“If we do not begin to engage in substantive discussion of draft laws registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, I do not rule out that again in a year we will talk about the need for laws, but there will be no laws”,- a member of the Mejlis said.
In his speech, Eskender Bariiev proposed the formation of a working group under the committee on the development of a draft law on indigenous peoples of Ukraine, from the committee and the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people to forward the draft law to the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which is an advisory body to the UN Human Rights Council and has a mandate for conducting a similar examination.
“And on August 9, on the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, the draft law on indigenous peoples of Ukraine should be registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine”,- Bariiev summed up.