Council of Europe’s Commissioner urges Mejlis ban reversal

26.04.2016 17:47

Ukrinform

Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks says that a Crimea court’s decision today to ban the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, by declaring it to be an extremist organization, should be cancelled.

This is said in a statement by the Commissioner, the text of which was posted on the European Council’s website.

“I am very concerned about today’s court decision in Crimea to ban the Mejlis by declaring it to be an extremist organization,” he said.

According to him, the highest representative body of the Crimean Tatars, the Mejlis, is inseparable from their aspirations to reestablish themselves in the peninsula after decades of exile during the Soviet era.

“The Mejlis is an important traditional and social structure of the Crimean Tatar people. Equating it with extremism paves the way for stigmatisation and discrimination of a significant part of the Crimean Tatar community,” Muiznieks said.

“I strongly urge a reversal of this ban in the interests of human rights protection and social cohesion on the peninsula,” he stressed.

As Ukrinform earlier reported, the so-called Supreme Court of the Russian-annexed Crimea declared the f Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people as an extremist organization and banned its activities.