The issue of violation of human rights by the state aggressor in Crimea took an important part of the assessment of the state of human rights in the World Report 2017: Ukraine, that is drawn up by the authoritative global human rights organization “Human Rights Watch”. The report noted that “the Russian government has completely suppressed a public criticism of Russia’s actions in Crimea” and it prosecutes people for criticizing the fact of occupation.

It is stated that the most independent media and human rights activists were forced to leave the peninsula, while those who remained were under constant clampdown from the occupying authority. The Human Rights Watch notes that the Russian authorities in Crimea punish the Crimean Tatar people for pro-Ukrainian position, using criminal prosecutions for “separatism” and groundless charges of “terrorism”. Human rights activists accuse Russian occupation authorities in Crimea of ​​detentions and imposition of fines on Crimean Tatars who peacefully went out for single-person protest against arrests and persecutions of other people. It is noted that the local punitive organs of the occupants force the pro-Ukrainian activists to call off  the peaceful cultural and political events; it was noted that under conditions of occupation the number of students in Crimea with the Ukrainian language of instruction was decreased by more than thirty times – from 13,589 students in 2013 to 371 in 2016.

Particular attention was paid to the prosecution of two deputy chairmen of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Ilmi Umerov and Akhtem Chyigoz by the occupation authorities, and their use by Russia as hostages in the negotiation process. The condemnation of Russia’s abuse in Crimea by the European Union in the context of Ukraine’s European integration has been particularly noted by the Human Rights Watch.

The full text of the World Human Rights Watch report in English is available at:

https://www.hrw.org/…/world_repo…/201801world_report_web.pdf