President: Ukraine urges United Nations to protect human rights in Crimea

The Head of State urged the UN to protect human rights in Crimea occupied by Russia and support the resolution on that issue initiated by Ukraine.

In the course of his speech at the UN General Assembly, the President emphasized: “the occupying state does not limit itself to combat actions in Donbas only. It also carries on its repressive policy in Crimea”.

“Once thriving and free, now the Crimean peninsula has become a “grey zone” where people are effectively deprived of all protection. The judicial and penitentiary systems in Crimea have been converted by Russia into a tool of repressions. As has been already the case so many times in history, most of the victims are Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians,” he noted.

“The latest stroke in this picture is the ban by the Russian occupation authorities on the activities of the Mejlis, the self-governing body of the Crimean Tatar people. Add to this the arbitrary detention of Ilmi Umerov, Deputy Head of the Mejlis, in a psychiatric facility for 20 days,” the President said.

“In fact, the outrageous practice of punitive psychiatry, which had been widely used by the Soviet repressive machinery, is now back in service for Russia,” Petro Poroshenko noted.

Ukraine urges Russia to grant unimpeded access of international human rights organizations to both Crimea and Donbas, and implement the decision of UNESCO Executive Board on establishing monitoring in Crimea at the institutional level.

“The residents of the peninsula must be protected from discrimination and repressions. The genocide of the Crimean Tatar people who already experienced the tragedy of forced deportation 70 years ago must not repeat,” the President stressed.

The Head of State highly appreciated the contribution of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Council to addressing the current human rights situation in our country, including in occupied Crimea.

According to him, Ukraine intends to bring that matter to the attention of the UN General Assembly and to submit a respective draft resolution on the human rights situation in the territory of the occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

“This resolution shall become an impartial assessment of the human rights situation in the occupied territories by the entire UN family. People in these territories have the right to be protected. Their children have the right to be protected. And it is our responsibility, as the United Nations, to protect them. I appeal to all UN member states to support the initiative of Ukraine,” the President concluded.