An expert consultation between the Mission and the UNESCO Antenna in Ukraine was held at the Mission’s premises. The meeting was dedicated to recent developments in occupied Crimea in the areas of culture, sports, cultural heritage, the environment, freedom of expression, and the safety of journalists.

Participants included Denys Chystikov, Deputy Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea; Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi, Head of the UNESCO Antenna in Ukraine; Anna Sytnikova, Deputy Head of the Crimea Platform Support Service; Viktoriia Nesterenko, Project Manager at the ZMINA Human Rights Center; Iryna Baran El Ghali, International Advocacy Manager at the Crimean Human Rights Group; Mariia Sulialina, Head of the Centre for Civic Education “Almenda”; Kateryna Rashevska, Legal Expert at the Regional Center for Human Rights; Imran Useinov, Vice President of the Wrestling Federation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Director of QIRIM.MEDIA; Suleyman Mamutov, Expert to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues; Evelina Kravchenko, Senior Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; Aliye Ibrahimova, Member of ICOMOS; and Pavlo Goldin, Researcher and Specialist in Marine Mammals.

Experts presented information on systematic violations of journalists’ rights, freedom of expression, and the educational rights of national minorities; the militarization of education in occupied Crimea; and the erasure of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar identity through the destruction of cultural heritage sites, including the Chersonesus Taurica and the Khan’s Palace. They also addressed environmental threats caused by the actions of the Russian Federation in the occupied territory.

After the meeting, participants exchanged views. They once again emphasized the importance of involving international organizations, in particular UNESCO, in monitoring and responding to human rights violations in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea.