The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe made a decision on the human rights situation in the Russian-occupied Crimea. The Council of Europe called on the Russian Federation to restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine, as well as to stop violations of human rights on the peninsula.
The Council of Europe expressed its deep concern that the human rights situation in Crimea is significantly deteriorating under Russian occupation, with numerous and serious human rights violations, including arbitrary detention and arrest, enforced disappearances, deportations, torture, ill-treatment and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
The Council of Ministers of the Council of Europe called on the Russian Federation:
1. To fulfill all its obligations under international law and restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders;
2. To release and allow the return, without preconditions, of all citizens of Ukraine who were unlawfully detained and convicted without taking into account the requirements of international law, as well as persons displaced or deported across the internationally recognized borders from Crimea to the Russian Federation;
3. To fulfill its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law and restore the rights of all persons belonging to all ethnic communities in Crimea;
4. To cancel the decision to declare the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people an extremist organization and prohibit its activities, to cancel the decision to ban the Mejlis leaders from entering Crimea and refrain from maintaining or imposing restrictions on the ability of the Crimean Tatar community to govern their representative institutions.