On Wednesday, July 6, the manager of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, Liudmyla Korotkykh, took part in the meeting of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples under agenda topic 9 Thematic Panel: Violence against Indigenous Women. During her speech, Korotkykh noted that Crimean Tatar women become victims of Russian aggression not only in Crimea, but also in the newly occupied territories of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Full text of the speech
First of all, I want to thank the UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples for the opportunity to participate in the 15th session of EMRIP.
Indigenous women are at high risk of human rights violations and gender-based violence in situations of militarization and military conflict, which exacerbate social, political and economic insecurity. The deterioration of the human rights situation in the region due to development projects, anti-terror laws passed by states, restrictive laws imposed on civil society, suppress the voices of indigenous women. The acceleration of authoritarianism, intolerance, is increasingly subjecting indigenous women and girls to persecution in their efforts to assert and protect their individual and collective rights. These include gender-based threats such as trumped-up charges and threats to their children.
Yesterday, you all witnessed the attitude of the Russian Federation towards indigenous women. I would like to express my gratitude to the representatives of indigenous peoples and countries that have condemned these actions.
In total, during the period of occupation of Crimea, 12 women died on the peninsula, including 3 Crimean Tatars. A terrible example of the use of violence against Crimean Tatar women by the so-called law enforcement officers was the death of the 82-year-old Vedzhiie Kashka during an attempt to detain her.
Indigenous lawyer Emine Avamileva was subjected to administrative arrest for 5 days in May this year, when she was performing her professional duties, defending another indigenous lawyer, who was also detained in the performance of her professional duties.
After the full-scale invasion and occupation of new territories, the Crimean Tatar women, compactly residing in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, became victims of persecution by the Russian occupation forces. 4 Crimean Tatar women became victims of enforced disappearance.
Traditionally, Crimean Tatar women actively participated in political life. Thus, due to the prohibition of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people and the actions of the occupation administration of the Russian Federation in Crimea, hundreds of women of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people are limited in their right to exercise their own representative functions, since staying in this capacity on the territory of the Crimean peninsula threatens to bring them to criminal liability as a member of an extremist organization.
In this regard, we demand from Russia to stop discrimination and violence against indigenous Crimean Tatar women and girls, as well as stop the illegal persecution of all representatives of the indigenous people in the occupied territories.
We recommend the Expert Mechanism to investigate the participation of women in the development of the world and their role in the peace negotiation process to achieve sustainable peace. And also to develop a mechanism for the effective protection of indigenous women who have been persecuted by the state.