A draft UN resolution «Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and in the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine» was adopted by the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly on the 14th day of November, 2017.
Following the previous UN documents in the draft resolution the UN General Assembly condemns violations, restrictions of human rights, discriminatory measures and practice regarding to the citizens of temporarily occupied Crimea, including Crimean Tatars, Ukrainians and people belonging to other ethnic and religious groups by the Russian occupation authorities. The UN General Assembly condemns illegal establishing of the Russian laws, jurisdiction and control in the occupied Crimea and demands from the Russian Federation to honor commitments under the international law concerning respect of laws applicable in Crimea before occupation.
In the indicated draft, the UN General Assembly urgently calls on the Russian Federation:
- to fulfil all their obligations in accordance with applied rules of the international law as an state-occupant;
- to implement completely and urgently a Decision of the UN International Court of Justice d. 19th day of April, 2017 about temporary measures in the case “Ukraine vs Russian Federation”;
- to take all necessary measures in order to put an end to all the violations and oppressions of human rights regarding Crimeans, in particular to the discriminatory actions mentioned in the reports of the international organizations, arbitrary detentions, tortures and other cruel, inhuman or debasing kinds of behavior and to abolish all the discriminatory laws;
- to respect the laws applicable in Ukraine and to abolish laws which have been introduced into effect in Crimea by the Russian Federation and which allow it to exercise an involuntary dispossession and confiscating a private property in the occupied peninsula with violation of applied rules of the international law;
- to release urgently all Ukrainian citizens who had been illegally detained and convicted without consideration of basic norms of administration of justice and those people who have been taken or deported across the internationally recognized borders from Crimea to the Russian Federation;
- to solve an issue of impunity and to provide that the persons found guilty of violations and oppression of human rights would brought to justice in the independence court;
- to create and support safe and favorable conditions for journalists, human rights advocates and defense attorneys in order that they could do their job in Crimea independently and without unjustifiable interference;
- to resume the realization of rights for all people without any discrimination based on the origin and religion or beliefs and to cancel decisions which put a ban on cultural and religious establishments, scientific production associations, human rights organizations, media and to resume realization of rights for people belonging to the ethnic communities in Crimea in particular for Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars including right to participation in cultural events;
- to provide accessibility of education in Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar language;
- to cancel urgently the decision about pronouncing Majlis of Crimean Tatar people as extremist organization and about ban on its activity, nullify the decision about ban for Majlis leaders to enter on Crimean territory and abstain from preservation or implementing of limitations on the ability of Crimean Tatar community to preserve their representative institutes;
- to put the end to practice of coercion of Crimean citizens to service in the armed or auxiliary forces of the Russian Federation including pressure and propaganda;
- to begin urgently to cooperate in full with Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and Council of Europe in relation to issues about situation concerning human rights in Crimea;
In draft resolution, UN General Assembly requests Secretary-General to look for ways including through consultations with Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and relevant regional organizations which allow to provide safe and unimpeded access to Crimea for regional and international mechanisms to monitor situation concerning human rights in particular UN missions which monitor situation concerning human rights in Ukraine so that they can fulfil its mandate. In the draft, UN General Assembly urgently calls on the Russian Federation to provide proper and unimpeded access of international missions to monitor situation concerning human rights and human right non-government organizations in Crimea including all places where people deprived of liberty can be contained, need to recognize that international presence in Crimea will have paramount importance for further deterioration to avoid.