CrimeaSOS: at least 18 articles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples are violated by the occupying authorities in Crimea

Since the beginning of the occupation of Crimea, russia has been purposefully persecuting the Crimean Tatars for almost 12 years, perceiving the indigenous people of Crimea as a threat to its occupation policy. Within the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples alone, at least 18 violated articles have been recorded. This was stated by Sabina Ilias, co-coordinator of the CrimeaSOS NGO, during an event in New York dedicated to the consequences of 11 years of russian occupation of Ukraine.

From the ban on assimilation and forced evictions to the destruction of cultural heritage, media censorship, and obstruction of the activities of representative bodies of the Crimean Tatars, including the Mejlis.

After February 2022, cases of criminal persecution of women and creating an image of terrorists for them sharply increased in occupied Crimea. The latest case provided for the detention of 4 Crimean Tatar women on charges of alleged involvement in the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization banned in the russian federation.

The human rights activist emphasized that at least 133 of the more than 222 victims of politically motivated persecution in Crimea were Crimean Tatars. At least 50 illegal searches are recorded each year, with up to 75% of them taking place in the homes of Crimean Tatars. The occupying forces are carrying out mass arrests in mosques after Friday prayers, as well as near courts where people come to support the persecuted.

In addition, as part of the side event, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Mariana Betsa, Ukrainian human rights defenders, including the head of the Crimean Human Rights Group Olha Skrypnyk, expert of the ZMINA Human Rights Centre Tetiana Zhukova and expert of the Regional Centre for Human Rights Kateryna Rashevska called on UN states to support the resolution on the return of Ukrainian children, as well as on human rights violations in the Ukrainian TOT (temporarily occupied territories).

We previously reported that the russian federation’s withdrawal from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment would have negative consequences for international influence on the human rights situation in the country.