The Crimean Tatar Resource Center sent a report to the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on the topic: “The impact of the militarization of Crimea on the rights of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people”.
The report will be used to create an issue paper to be presented by the Expert Mechanism at its annual session due in July 2023. The document will also be finalized and submitted to the Human Rights Council at its 54th session in September 2023.
The CTRC provided information about the situation with the militarization of Crimea occupied by the Russian Federation, about illegal conscription campaigns, about illegal mobilization into the Russian army to participate in the war against Ukraine, and also about how the occupiers abuse Russian legislation and purposefully create new tools to persecute Ukrainian citizens.
The document notes that representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people cannot live in peace and security in their homeland, which is guaranteed by Art. 7 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. To avoid mobilization and a situation where they have to fight against representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people forced to live in mainland Ukraine, thousands of Crimean Tatars aged 18 to 60 were forced to leave their homes and travel to third countries to avoid conscription.
This policy is a hybrid form of forced deportation of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people and violates Article 10 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
“The indigenous Crimean Tatar people need the support of the international community to protect their rights, as well as the expert involvement of EMRIP members in order to achieve sustainable peace and develop an effective tool for paying reparations and compensation for damage”,- the CTRC report says.
