Rada's delegation initiates creation of 'Crimean Platform' at PACE site – Mezentseva
Head of the Verkhovna Rada's permanent delegation the to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Maria Mezentseva (from the Servant of the People faction) announced the creation of an informal 'Crimean Platform' at the PACE site.
"In the new strategy of our delegation […] there is the initiative on an informal platform for supporting Crimea and human rights, which is one of the outposts of the PACE activities. The informal platform for supporting Ukraine has already been founded as the 'Crimean Platform.' It will have the same name on the PACE platforms. And we will [...] inform potential partners, PACE deputies about this initiative so that they join this platform," Mezentseva said at the online roundtable conference titled "The Situation of Human Rights in Occupied Crimea on the Eve of Winter Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe" on Wednesday.
According to the MP, the new platform at the PACE site will work in parallel with the already existing thematic platform "Baltic Plus."
"My colleagues and I thought that we should separate Crimea, the observance of human rights and the situation on the peninsula into another dimension and actively work on this track," the MP said.
Mezentseva said the human rights situation on the Crimean peninsula is deteriorating, which, among other things, is facilitated by coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and about which the permanent delegation of the Verkhovna Rada will inform PACE again.
As reported earlier, Mezentseva spoke in favor of attracting PACE representatives to the "Crimean Platform." "We have a definite opinion that the Crimean platform should also be extended to PACE," Mezentseva told Interfax-Ukraine.
She said the Crimean issue remains acute and urgent and is not removed from the agenda of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE, "just like the war in Donbas."
The winter session of PACE will be held on January 25 o January 28 in a hybrid format (online and in person) in Strasbourg.