You're reading: Human Rights Watch report reads situation in Crimea deteriorates

Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit, nongovernmental human rights organization, has said that the human rights situation in temporarily occupied Crimea is drastically deteriorating and the space for free speech, freedom of association and media has shrunk dramatically.

According to a report posted on the organization’s website on March 18, Russian authorities have created a pervasive climate of fear and repression in Crimea in the two years since it has occupied the peninsula.

“Since Russian forces began occupying Crimea in early 2014, the space for free speech, freedom of association, and media in Crimea has shrunk dramatically. In two years, authorities have failed to conduct meaningful investigations into actions of armed paramilitary groups, implicated in torture, extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, attacks and beatings of Crimean Tatar and pro-Ukraine activists and journalists,” reads the report.

Two years on, it is evident that residents who chose not to accept Russian citizenship face discrimination in getting jobs and social services.

Under the pretext of combating extremism or terrorism, the authorities have harassed, intimidated, and taken arbitrary legal action against Crimean Tatars, an ethnic minority who openly opposed Russia’s occupation.

Russian authorities have also searched, threatened, or shut down Crimean Tatar media outlets and banned peaceful gatherings to commemorate historic events, such as the anniversary of the deportation of Crimean Tatars.

Local authorities declared two Crimean Tatar leaders personae non gratae and prohibited them from entering Crimea.

Crimea’s prosecutor petitioned a court to recognize the actions of Mejlis, the Crimean Tatars’ elected representative body, as extremist. In February 2016, court proceedings began to determine whether to shut it down.

In August, a Russian military court sentenced a Ukrainian filmmaker from Crimea, Oleh Sentsov, to 20 years in jail for supposedly running a ‘terrorist organization.’ The case against Sentsov lacked foundation and was politically motivated.

“Russia bears direct responsibility for the surge in rights abuses in Crimea. Russia’s international partners should sustain constant pressure on Russia to stop human rights abuses on the peninsula,” Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said.