UN calls on Russia to stop tortures and lift ban on Mejlis activities in Crimea

This is stated in the third report of the UN Secretary-General on the human rights situation in Crimea, entitled “Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine.”

“Russian authorities are required to comply fully with the absolute prohibition of torture and ensure the independent, impartial and effective investigation of all allegations of ill-treatment, torture, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and enforced disappearances in Crimea,” read the conclusions and recommendations of the report.

The UN Secretary-General also called on Russian authorities to ensure that “freedoms of opinion and expression and the right to freedoms of peaceful assembly, association, thought, conscience and religion can be exercised by any individual and group in Crimea, without discrimination on any grounds or unjustified regulatory barriers.”

The report also underscores the need to lift restrictions on the activities of independent media and a ban on the representative body of the Crimean Tatars.

“I also call to enable a safe environment for independent and pluralistic media outlets and civil society organizations, and to lift restrictions imposed on the Crimean Tatar community to conserve its representative institutions, including the ban on the Mejlis,” the report reads.

Moreover, the UN Secretary-General emphasized the need to ensure the availability of education in the Ukrainian language in Crimea.

Other recommended measures include ending the conscription of protected persons residing in Crimea into the armed forces of the Russian Federation, restoring property rights of all former owners deprived of their titles owing to “nationalization” and confiscations, and respecting the right to adequate housing of all tenants residing in social housing in Crimea.

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