On Friday, April 19 at 10:00 a.m., a side-event entitled ” Russian military aggression and temporary occupation of Crimea: catastrophic impact on the present and future of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine ” will be held at the UN Headquarters in New York as part of the 23rd session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
Organizers: Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the UN, Crimean Tatar Resource Center, Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People.
Speakers:
Sergiy Kyslytsya – Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN
Refat Chubarov – Chairman of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People
Eskender Bariiev – Chairman of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, Chairman of the Department of External Relations and Human Rights Protection of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People
Liudmyla Korotkikh – Deputy Chairperson of the Crimean Tatar Youth Center
Suleiman Mamutov – Member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Speakers will discuss Russia’s discriminatory policy and practice of Russia as an aggressor state in the occupied Crimea against indigenous peoples, and will analyze the consequences of the ban of the representative body of indigenous Crimean Tatar people, the Mejlis; as well as the illegal mobilization as a war crime for suppression voices of indigenous youth, the ongoing militarization of Crimea, which is used as a base for escalating aggression and the related humanitarian and environmental challenges.
Key topics to be discussed:
- Indigenous peoples as victims of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the context of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.
- Mobilization as an instrument of hybrid deportation of indigenous peoples and pressure on indigenous Crimean Tatar youth.
- The problem of realization of the right to self-determination of indigenous Crimean Tatar people in conditions of ongoing Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
- Mechanisms for the protection of indigenous peoples inarmed conflict.