Crimean issues were ignored in draft UN reports that were made public at the regular session of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP), according to Borys Babin, the official rapporteur from Ukraine and former representative of ex-President Petro Poroshenko for Crimea.
“This year representatives of governments, peoples, and experts will have to discuss important reports on border and displacement issues, as well as on recognition and compensation to indigenous peoples. Both topics are obvious to the indigenous peoples of Ukraine, both for those in the occupied territories and internally displaced persons (IDPs). Unfortunately, the Crimean issue in both draft UN reports was completely ignored, despite the fact that local organizations submitted relevant proposals, figures and facts to the Expert Mechanism on time,” Babin said on Facebook on July 15 after the EMRIP session in Geneva, Switzerland.
Babin said during this presentation he noted that the fate of 20,000 displaced Crimean Tatars was ignored and pointed out gross violations of international law on the peninsula by Russian authorities.
“I talked about the practice of political demands made by Russia, which holds various kinds of hostages in Crimea, thereby carrying out acts of state terrorism. The report will be more detailed tomorrow, in another interesting city,” Babin said.
The 12th session of the UN EMRIP is held in Geneva July 15-16. On July 16, the Coordination Meeting of EMRIP is scheduled to be held in private session.
