12:00 09.10.2020

Foreign Ministry comments on UN Secretary General's statement on Russia's repressions in Crimea

3 min read
Foreign Ministry comments on UN Secretary General's statement on Russia's repressions in Crimea

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Ukraine took into account the third statement of the UN Secretary General "The Situation with Human Rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, Ukraine," which was prepared in pursuance of eponymous UN General Assembly resolution No.74/168 and released on October 8, the press service of the Foreign Ministry said.

"The key element of the statement is the call of the UN Secretary General in the Russian Federation, as an occupying state, to stop gross violations of human rights and to comply with all its obligations in accordance with international humanitarian and human rights law," according to the statement.

As explained in the diplomatic department, first of all, it is about ending torture, illegal arrests, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, ensuring freedom of speech, peaceful assembly, lifting the ban of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. "Amid attacks against the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Crimea, it is also important to call the UN Secretary General to ensure freedom of religion and belief without any discrimination or the introduction of artificial regulatory barriers," the press service said.

The Foreign Ministry also said that Russia continues to grossly violate international law, using military courts on the territory of the Russian Federation under the pretext of "fighting extremism and terrorism" to illegally convict citizens of Ukraine. In particular, cases of movement of illegally detained citizens of Ukraine from the temporarily occupied peninsula to the territory of Russia are recorded without proper informing their relatives about their locations and violation of the right to consular access as a result of the forced change of citizenship.

"In the context of the policy, which is purposefully implemented in Russian by the occupation authorities to change the demographic composition of the Crimean peninsula, the statement documents the destruction of private buildings of the Crimean Tatars as an example of forced eviction. Particular attention is drawn to the increase in the number of internally displaced persons from the temporarily occupied Crimea," the ministry said.

In addition, the diplomatic agency said that contrary to the requirements of UN General Assembly resolution No. 74/168 and numerous appeals of the international community, the Russian Federation again ignored the UN General Assembly mandate and did not provide access to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission from the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula.

"We call on the international community to respond to the continuing violations by the occupying state of international law in the occupied territories of Ukraine, in particular by increasing political, diplomatic and sanctions pressure," the Foreign Ministry said.

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