Madam Chairperson, 

Today, we are compelled to raise again an additional current issue on the violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol under the illegal Russian occupation.

The reason for this is an unprecedented by scale and brutality wave of repressions against Ukrainian citizens, in particular Crimean Tatars, committed by the Russian Federation as occupying power in Crimea.

On September 3 and 4, the security forces of the Russian occupation administration broke into houses of Crimean Tatars and illegally detained Shevket Useinov, Aziz Akhtemov, Eldar Odamanov, Asan Akhmetov and First Deputy Chairman of the Crimean Tatar People Mejlis Nariman Dzhelyal.

Nariman Dzhelyal participated in the Inaugural Summit of the Crimea Platform on 23 August 2021. According to Nariman’s wife, about ten FSB officers arrived at their house and locked her and four children in one of the rooms. The officers took Nariman’s computer and telephone, put him into a car with no number plates and drove in unknown direction.

Russian occupation administration authorities deprived all detainees of a possibility to communicate with their relatives and defense lawyers.

Furthermore, on 4 September, while trying to enquire into the whereabout of the five Crimean Tatars detained before, about 50 more persons, among them relatives, activists, including two citizen journalists, namely journalists of “Crimean Solidarity” and “Grani.ru” media - Ayder Kadyrov and Nuri Abdurashitov, were detained at the FSB building. They have been accused of administrative offence.  

According to the available information, illegal methods of investigation, psychological and physical pressure were applied to the detainees. Such actions of the Russian occupation administration amount to torture and inhuman treatment prohibited by Article 3 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Madam Chairperson,

We view the arrests on September 3 and 4, and illegal detention of Nariman Dzhelyal, who is accused on trumped-up charges of sabotage and faces up to 15 years in prison, as continuation of blatant repressions against the leadership of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people and a retribution for participation in the Crimea Platform Summit.

These violent actions demonstrate how impunity of aggressor State and its occupation administration for the systemic violations of international norms and principles lead to further, even more severe acts of violence.

Given the extreme graveness of the situation, we call on the OSCE Chairpersonship and institutions to make full use of their mandates and take urgent steps to facilitate the immediate release of First Deputy Chairman of the Crimean Tatar People Mejlis Nariman Dzhelya and all illegally detained Ukrainian citizens.

It is long overdue for the OSCE SMM to start reporting on the situation in the temporarily occupied Crimea, as envisaged by its mandate.

Distinguished colleagues,

The cynicism of the situation in Crimea is illustrated by the fact that this new wave of repressions took place just a few days after the publication of the UN Secretary-General report “Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine”.

The report documented 61 house searches and raids in Crimea from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021. It also noted that during the searches, law enforcement officials of the occupation administration often planted evidence and applied unnecessary or disproportionate force against victims.  The Russian Federation continues to blatantly violate international law and illegally convict Ukrainian citizens and transfer them from the temporarily occupied peninsula to Russia.

The document registered numerous cases of torture, including the use of sexual violence, illegal arrests, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, violations of the freedom of religion, expression, and peaceful assembly by the FSB and other Russian occupation authorities.

The UN Secretary-General report also describes an ongoing relocation of the population from Russia into the temporarily occupied Crimea; gross violations of the language rights of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars; conscription of Crimea residents into the Russian army and judicial prosecution of draft evaders; persecution of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine where peaceful religious followers are being targets of extremism accusations.

Moreover, the media are persecuted and punished even for printing the UN Secretary-General's reports on the human rights situation on the peninsula under Russian occupation, which is a shameful and indecent behavior for a UN member state.

By way of concluding I wish to reiterate that Ukraine strongly condemns Russia’s aggression, illegal occupation and attempted annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol. We urge Russia to reverse the illegal occupation and to return the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine where it belongs according to the norms of international law.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson.