Head of Verkhovna Rada Committee for Human Rights, National Minorities and Foreign Affairs Hryhorii Nemyria takes part in international conference entitled “Human Rights in Crimea: Reports, Respond, Renew”
31 March 2015, 14:01
“The major mistake as to the tackling of the Crimean issue — is the approach, following which it is being considered that such a solution will take decades to come to life. Such a stand is unacceptable and irresponsible,” said Nemyria, having called on the Government to work together with non-government organizations in this field.
“Crimea has been stolen. Taking that in consideration we have to avoid temptation is to have different approaches as to either Crimea or Donbas where combat activities are underway. These problems should not be separated. By their separation, we create a risk of playing the same Crimea-scenario in Donbas, including conduction of illegitimate referendum,” he noted.
According to Nemyria, to protect human rights in Crimea the following mechanisms are needed: active involvement of international organizations in independent monitoring of human rights in Crimea; creation of joint missions with international organizations to expose certain facts of violation of human rights; state assistance in activity of non-government organizations in Ukraine engaged in protection of human rights in Crimea; active application of international-legal mechanisms of protection of human rights, national minorities and indigenous peoples in Crimea; registration of all cases of infringement of human rights and demanding Russia prevent such cases.
Besides, he said that in February, the Committee sent recommendations obtained as a result of Committee hearings to the Ukrainian Government: “Status of observance of rights of internally-displaced persons and citizens of Ukraine living on temporarily occupied territories not controlled by the Ukrainian authorities in the antiterrorist operation zone.” Unfortunately, it is impossible to say now that the said recommendations have been efficiently taken in account, Nemyria noted.
In turn, Verkhovna Rada Ombudsperson Valeriya Lutkovska said that the human rights in Crimea are gravely defied and all the efforts regarding creation of international missions to supervise the observation of human rights are ignored by Russia.
“Now Crimea is the peninsula of fear. In fact the second forced deportation of the Crimean Tatars is taking place there now. Rights of Crimean Tatars and Ukrainian minority are infringed in every way,” she said.
Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov called for elaboration of mechanisms enabling the world community to make Russia adhere to human rights in Crimea.
“Russia must feel this pressure. This is the only way we can protect people in Crimea,” he noted.
UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Ukraine Neal Walker assured once again that the UN supports territorial integrity of Ukraine and condemns Crimea’s annexation by Russia as it was expressed in the UN Resolution of March 2014.
“Unfortunately, today we see very serious tendencies in the infringement of human rights in Crimea,” he noted.
“A year after the Crimea’s annexation by Russia we are watching permanent deterioration in the field of human rights on the peninsula,” said Danish Ambassador to Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia Merete Juhl, and called for investigation into all cases of human rights infringement in Crimea.
The conference organized by the Secretariat of the Ombudsperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Crimean field mission on Human Rights (Information Centre on Human Rights, Center for Civil Liberties, Ukrainian Helsinki Union for Human Rights, Center for Civic Education Almenda, Youth Movement for Human Rights (Russia) with the support of UNDP in Ukraine and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, was attended by UN Resident Coordinator in Ukraine and UNDP Resident Representative in Ukraine Neal Walker, Head of the Monitoring Mission for Human Rights in Ukraine (Geneva) Armen Harutyunyan, coordinator of civil society in Ukraine-OSCE/ODIHR (Poland) Katarzyna Jarosiewicz-Wargan, Chairman of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov, Ombudsman of Ukraine Valeriya Lutkovska, representatives of Ukrainian and international human rights organizations and experts.