On 21 November 2018 the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in ARC Borys Babin took part in the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Culture and Spirituality to highlight the issues of cultural and archeological heritage protection in the temporarily occupied Crimea. In his speech, Borys Babin noted the need to strengthen the protection of the rights of the Indigenous Peoples and religious communities in Crimea.

The specific examples of damage and destruction of the historical and cultural monuments and sites in the occupied Crimea were given, particularly the illegal archeological investigations and export of cultural property from Crimea to the Russia.

The Committee supported the regulations and measures taken to implement the Plan of Urgent Measures to Counteract the Russian Aggression from the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine in Crimea, Protection of the Interests of State, Citizens of Ukraine and Ukrainian Legal Persons in Crimea for the Period of 2018 – 2019 on issues of culture and spirituality. A special attention was drawn to the including the entities involved into destruction and export of the Ukrainian cultural heritage in Crimea into the sanction list.

On the same day, the Permanent Representative participated in the Parliamentary Hearings of the Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations on theme: “Improvement of the State Sanction Policy against the Persons, Involved into the Illegal Politically Motivated Persecution of the Citizens of Ukraine in the Temporarily Occupied Territories and Russia”

At the hearings, the improvement of the national legislation of Ukraine on sanctions, imposed against the categories of persons was discussed to enhance the national sanctions and sanctions of the western countries, imposed against the persons involved into the illegal politically motivated persecution of the citizens of Ukraine, particularly the coherence between the sanction policy of Ukraine and “The Magnitsky Act”.

The Permanent Representative outlined the practical situations of implementation of sanctions and the cause of court proceedings involving the Mission, initiated by the residents of the state-aggressor in Ukraine. Borys Babin noted that the sanctions should be implemented in compliance with the rules of special law and subsidiary instruments approved by the National Bank of Ukraine, Security Service of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. On the other hand, he criticized the persistent and baseless attempts to entrust to one central executive authority a task to coordinate the activity of all governmental authorities on sanctions, which is extremely limited institutionally.

Borys Babin noted that the restrictions should be imposed not only to protect the Human Rghts but also against the huge economic entities under the control of the state-aggressor and its representatives significantly. He stressed on the need to develop required response to the attempts to change the owner of the sanctioned property and the activity of Ukrainian contractors of the sanctioned enterprises and organizations.

The Permanent Representative also took part in the meeting of the Subcommittee on State and Self-Governmental Service of the Parliamentary Committee on State Development, Regional Policy and Local Self-Governement. Now the working relationship with Parliamentary Committees is ongoing.