The Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, the head of the department of legal affairs and foreign affairs of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Eskender Bariiev in an interview with the Crimea.Realities media agency said that the indigenous Crimean Tatar people had been seeking official recognition in Ukraine for a long time. Only 7 years ago, the Verkhovna Rada recognized the Crimean Tatar people as an indigenous people, but despite this, there is still no basic law in Ukraine – the law On Indigenous Peoples.
“Despite the fact that in the Constitution of Ukraine since 1996, in Article 11 mentions that there are indigenous peoples in Ukraine and this term was used in a number of documents, in fact, there was no official recognition until March 20, 2014. Then, by the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Crimean Tatars were recognized as an indigenous people, and the Mejlis and Qurultay – its official bodies. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine was instructed to develop a bill on the indigenous peoples of Ukraine by the fourth quarter of 2016 and, accordingly, to submit it to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for consideration. At the UN Forum on Indigenous Issues, the representative of Ukraine officially announced that the country is joining the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. However, during all this time that bill has not been developed”,- he said.
Bariiev noted that the issue of amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine regarding the Crimean Tatar national-territorial autonomy in Crimea also remains open. In turn, the Russian authorities in 2016 included the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people in the list of banned organizations and refuse to cancel this decision, despite the demand of the International Court of Justice of the United Nations in April 2017.