Liudmyla Korotkykh, Communications Manager of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, spoke at the plenary session of the OSCE’s Third Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting about Russia’s discriminatory policy in the occupied Ukrainian territories, especially against indigenous peoples.
Full speech
Dear participants!
As you know, the Crimean Tatar people and pro-Ukrainian activists opposed the occupation of Crimea in 2014. In order to overcome their non-violent resistance, the occupation authorities launched a campaign of persecution and the creation of an “internal enemy” image.
In 2016, under the guise of fighting extremism, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, the representative executive body of the indigenous people of Ukraine, as an extremist organization and banned its activities. In April 2017, the International Court of Justice issued an interim decision that obliged Russia to restore the activities of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. However, the Russian Federation has not yet complied with this decision.
The de facto authorities are actively using all instruments of pressure: illegal detentions, arrests, searches, initiation of fabricated administrative and criminal cases, threats, beatings, torture, and forced abductions. All these crimes are systemic.
In response to this, representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people began to form informal networks and develop independent civic journalism.
The only available means of civil activism for Crimean residents are cultural initiatives, but even these are not safe.
On June 26, it was the Day of the Crimean Tatar National Flag. The day before, the activists were accused of launching a public event without a permit and fined for demonstrating the Crimean Tatar flag. It is a common practice that on the eve of the Crimean Tatar Flag Day, Crimean Tatar activists receive warnings from the occupation authorities of Crimea about the inadmissibility of violating the law on countering extremism.
This discriminatory policy towards the indigenous Crimean Tatar people is a continuation of the genocide committed by the Soviet Union against the Crimean Tatars in 1944. And it is a policy of polarizing society, where ethnicity and religion will become a determining factor, making it much more difficult to maintain the progress made in tolerating the different ethnic and religious groups in Crimea.
The role of civil society in the struggle against discrimination and intolerance cannot be overestimated. For example, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center uses such approaches as civic non-formal education, information campaigns, national and international advocacy, etc. In particular, since 2015, the CTRC has organized 8 summer camps and 7 Academies of Public Diplomacy, thus providing non-formal education to more than 350 people. Information campaigns aimed at debunking Russian propaganda and overcoming stereotypes about Crimean Tatars and Crimea in general have spoken to more than 35 million people. Dozens of applications, complaints, and communications were submitted to universal and special human rights mechanisms.
The CTRC’s important contribution is the provision of information to Ukrainian lawyers in the Ukraine v. Russia case at the International Court of Justice to shape the position regarding the violation of the CCPR, as well as providing testimonies to the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC.
Therefore, we do need the support of our foreign colleagues, because their experience, both positive and negative, can strengthen our work and protect our people who continue to be subject to discrimination in the territories occupied by Russia.
Thank you for your attention!