The Crimean Tatar Resource Center has sent recommendations for the interim report of the UN Secretary General on human rights in the occupied Crimea, which will be considered on July 13, 2021 at the 47th session of the UN Human Rights Council.
1. By the decision of the so-called Supreme Court of the Republic of Crimea dated April 26, 2016, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, the representative body of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people, was banned. On April 19, 2017, the International Court of Justice issued an interim judgment in the case Ukraine v. Russia in the part of the complaint about violation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which ordered Russia to restore the activities of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People – the representative body of the indigenous people of Crimea. However, the Russian Federation has not yet complied with this decision and has continued the persecution of members of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, including in the form of an in absentia investigation. The report also lacks an analysis of the situation with the implementation of the political rights of representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people.
2. In Crimea, racial discrimination against Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians continues, in particular, the situation in the areas of employment, education, culture, medicine, law enforcement, and social security has not been studied. It is also necessary to study the persecution of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people in the occupied Crimea under the guise of fighting terrorism and extremism.
3. It is necessary to study the continuing discrimination against Crimean Tatar women on the peninsula. The most vulnerable are the relatives of political prisoners, today there are 64 wives, 119 mothers and 98 daughters of political prisoners. Activists of the Crimean Tatar national movement are also subject to systematic pressure and persecution.
4. In his report, the Secretary General did not examine the issue of the functioning of the health system in the peninsula. The assessment of actions in this area in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic has not been carried out. The UN should also pay attention to the compulsory vaccination campaign in Crimea with Russian uncertified vaccine.
5. It is important to investigate the ecological situation on the peninsula. Due to the active anthropogenic impact of the occupation authorities, there is a threat to the Crimean ecosystem, which affects, among other things, the water supply of the inhabitants of the peninsula.
6. The imposition of Russian citizenship on Ukrainian citizens in Crimea led to the fact that with the adoption of a law by the Russian Federation prohibiting land ownership by non-citizens of the Russian Federation, land plots are being seized from Ukrainian citizens who refused to obtain a Russian passport.