During the 45th session of the UN Human Rights Council, 41 countries-members of the UN stood with the joint statement regarding the situation in Crimea as the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine reported.
“We would like to specifically refer to the interim report of the UN Secretary General A/HRC/44/21 “Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine”, submitted before the Council pursuant to the UNGA resolution 74/168. This document confirms the continued deterioration of human rights situation in the illegally annexed territories of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine, and continued attempts by the Russian Federation to undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, with further intentions to forcibly integrate the mentioned territories into Russia, thus violating international law,” the document says.
The UN countries that signed the statement expressed the concern due to such violations of the human rights in occupied Crimea:
- arbitrary arrests, torture and other ill-treatment, grossly inadequate conditions of detention in overcrowded cells, lack of proper medical care, individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the occupying power;
- forced conscriptions, unlawful interference with a person’s privacy;
- violations of the rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, to opinion and expression, and of the rights to peaceful assembly and association;
- the criminalization of freedom of expression on social media.
The UN countries urged Russia as the state-occupant to stick to its commitments on the international humanitarian law, guarantee rights and freedoms of human, steadily implement the resolutions of the UNGA on the territorial integrity of Ukraine and points about the human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol.
Besides, Russia should fulfill the order of the UN International Court on the lifting the ban of Mejlis. The countries-members of the EU also demand from Russia to provide complete and unimpeded access to international human rights monitoring missions and human rights non-governmental organizations to Crimea, pursuant to the General Assembly resolutions 71/205, 72/190, 73/263 and 74/168, must be immediately provided by the occupying power.
Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland signed the statement.
As we reported, based on the results of the preliminary investigation, the State Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine (DBR) has established the reasons and conditions that contributed to the collapse of the Armed Forces and the annexation of the Crimean peninsula.
