Mejlis: Restoration of rights of indigenous peoples of Ukraine is key tool for Crimea de-occupation

“Restoration of the rights of indigenous peoples in Crimea covers human rights violations, education, humanitarian law, environment, and collective rights. It is a key tool for the de-occupation of Crimea as there is a tendency in the world to restore the rights of indigenous peoples. The indigenous people factor is crucial for achieving 6 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030,” Eskender Bariyev, member of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, Head of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, said at the constituent forum of the Crimea Platform Expert Network on August 6, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

According to him, the main purpose of the Crimea Platform expert group, which includes the Mejlis members, representatives of indigenous peoples, experts, political scientists, historians, culturologists, and lawyers, is to promote the restoration of rights of indigenous peoples of Ukraine, including the right to self-determination. territory and resources, as well as the preservation and development of political, economic, and socio-cultural systems and institutions.

According to the activist, sustainable development of Crimea is possible only under the condition of de-occupation of Crimea and restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine with simultaneous observance of the rights of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine.

According to him, Russia is trying today to discredit the indigenous Crimean Tatar people in the eyes of the international community by banning its representative body, the Mejlis, and initiating criminal proceedings against its individual representatives.

According to Bariyev, the main threats to the occupied Crimea posed by Russia are the destruction of immovable cultural heritage, which leads to the loss of authentic cultural heritage, illegal archeological excavations, transfer of cultural property from Crimea to Russia, cultural colonization, restrictions on access to the occupied territory, concealment of information about the real situation in Crimea, persecution of ethnic media, and the threat of language loss as the main sign of identity.

The Crimea Platform is a new consultative and coordination format initiated by Ukraine to step up the efficiency of international response to the occupation of Crimea, respond to growing security challenges, increase international pressure on Russia, prevent further human rights violations, protect victims of the occupation regime, and achieve the main goal: to de-occupy Crimea and restore Ukraine’s sovereignty over the peninsula.

The Platform is to operate at several levels: heads of state and government, foreign ministers, inter-parliamentary cooperation, expert network.

The activity of the Crimea Platform will be officially launched at the inaugural summit in Kyiv on August 23, 2021.

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