Sixty-Three Countries Consider Russia’s Actions in Crimea Illegal

The international community has once again expressed solidarity with Ukraine in defending its territorial integrity and independence. Sixty-three partner countries of Ukraine co-sponsored the already adopted draft resolution “Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine.”

The key provisions of the resolution are as follows:

• Russian authorities in the temporarily occupied Crimea are illegal and should be referred to exclusively as “occupation authorities of the Russian Federation.”
• Russia’s continued illegal activities to resettle Russian citizens to the peninsula and imposition of automatic Russian citizenship negatively affect the enforcement of economic and social rights of Crimeans and force them to leave Crimea, being a covert form of deportation of persons protected by the Geneva Conventions under occupation.
• Political reprisals against Crimean Tatar people and persecution of journalists are ongoing in Crimea.
• Russia must provide international monitoring missions with unimpeded access to Crimea.

As early as December this year, this document could officially become the fifth resolution of the UN General Assembly on the protection of human rights in the occupied Crimea.

Natalia Tolub