UN General Assembly Committee supported resolution on human rights in Crimea
The Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee (the Third Committee) of the UN General Assembly supported the updated resolution on human rights in Russian-annexed Crimea.
71 countries voted in favor of the draft resolution “Provision on human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol”, 25 voted against it, and 77 countries abstained from voting.
The resolution condemns the violations and infringement of human rights and acts of discrimination against the inhabitants of the Russian-annexed Crimea, including the Crimean Tatars, Ukrainians, and members of other ethnic and religious groups, by the Russian authorities.
The document also condemns Russia’s use of its own laws in annexed Crimea, and the forced conversion of Ukrainian citizens into Russian citizens.
The draft resolution demands that Russia comply with the ruling of the International Court of Justice to restore the rights and liberties of Ukrainian citizens on the peninsula, and urges Russia to provide education in the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar languages.
In addition, the document contains a call to immediately repeal the decision to declare the Crimean Tatar people’s Mejlis an extremist organization and prohibit its operation, and to annul the decision to ban the Mejlis leaders from entering Crimean territory.
The resolution also urges Russia to put an end to the practice of forcing Crimean inhabitants to serve in Russia’s armed forces or auxiliary forces, especially through coercion and propaganda.
Furthermore, the draft resolution condemns Russia’s refusal to grant the UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine access to Crimea, despite the existing mission mandate.
The resolution was not supported by Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, China, South Korea, Serbia and Uzbekistan, amongst others.
The resolution will be submitted immediately to the UN General Assembly for review sometime in mid-December.
Earlier Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said that the new resolution prepared by Ukraine will be used in international court proceedings, especially in the International Court of Justice, if it is supported by the UN.