Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, Head of the Department of Legal Affairs and Foreign Affairs of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Eskender Bariiev spoke at the 21st session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples in the framework of paragraph 4 Discussion of six mandated areas of activity of the Permanent Forum, taking into account indigenous peoples, the final document World Conference on Indigenous Peoples and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In his speech, Bariiev drew attention to the adoption of the Law of Ukraine On the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine and the reaction of the Russian Federation to this. The Russian Federation, interfering in the internal affairs of Ukraine, at the highest level began to oppose the adoption of the Law on Indigenous Peoples in Ukraine. On June 8, 2021, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a Statement against the adoption of the Law of Ukraine On the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine. The CTRC believes that one of the reasons for the start of a full-scale war against Ukraine is the adoption of this Law, the proof is the ultimatum rhetoric of President Putin demanding that this Law be repealed, as well as diplomatic correspondence between the Russian Foreign Ministry, Germany and France, which was published on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
In addition, the expert stressed that two Russian organizations, the Association of Finno-Hungarian Peoples and the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North – RAIPON, which have consultative status with ECOSOC, officially supported Russia's military aggression against Ukraine. Thus, they supported the murder of civilians, indigenous peoples of Ukraine, crimes against humanity.
“I call on the President and the ECOSOC Bureau to deprive these organizations of their consultative status and prevent their representatives from being elected members of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples”,- Bariiev added.