The Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea welcomes the adoption of a draft resolution by the General Assembly committee. This document is an important instrument that Ukraine and its partners in the international arena are actively using. The Mission team appreciates all involved in this important result, especially the work of Dmytro Kuleba, Emine Dzheppar Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine / MFA of Ukraine, Sergíy Kyslytsya Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the UN / Perm Mission of Ukraine to the UN.

As in the previous year, the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, since March 2020, has participated in the drafting of the text of the draft resolution. This is how the key innovations in the draft resolution (on orphaned children, private property, including land rights, misuse and environmental harm) were developed.

The Mission team thanks the members of the Expert Council from civil society organizations and individual experts who provided suggestions on the text of the draft resolution.

When the General Assembly adopts the resolution «The Human Rights Situation in the Republic of Crimea and Mr. Sevastopol, Ukraine» in December, this will further consolidate the pressure on the Russian Federation for the occupying State to abide by international obligations, in particular international humanitarian law “, – the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the AR of Crimea Anton Korynevych said.

The key element of the updated draft resolution is an appeal to the international community to strengthen cooperation, in particular through international platforms, to pressure the Russian Federation to fulfil its international obligations as an occupying State.

Special attention is paid to the issue of the qualification of “organs” in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine as “occupation authorities of the Russian Federation”.

The resolution notes the continuation of illegal activities by the Russian Federation under international humanitarian law, including the resettlement of Russian citizens on the peninsula and the forced change of citizenship with a view to modifying the demographic composition of the population. The resolution also contains:

• • the call for the discontinuance of criminal proceedings for evasion of conscription;
  • condemnation of continuing impunity for enforced disappearances;
  • recognition of the role of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation in documented cases of torture.
  • drawing attention to the systemic political repression against the Crimean Tatar people, the repeated unjustified harsh sentences of political prisoners;
  • information on the persecution of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Crimea, the persecution of journalists, in particular civilians;
  •  the use of the pandemic to further violation human rights.

The resolution demands that the Russian Federation immediately cease gross violations of human rights and ensure unimpeded access to international human rights mechanisms; including the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to the temporarily occupied peninsula.