Biographies

12 06 2022

Tamila Tasheva

Tamila Tasheva was appointed in April 2022 by President Zelenskyy to the position of Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

In November 2019 she was appointed by President Zelenskyy to the position of Deputy Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

She was a Co-Founder and Chairwoman on the Board of CrimeaSOS. She is a human rights activist and one of Crimean Tatar young generation leaders. Ms. Tasheva is actively involved in IDP issues, the human rights situation in Crimea, advocacy activities and developing the Ukrainian legislation in social protection as well as humanitarian law regarding the temporary occupied territories.

Ms. Tamila Tasheva has a wide experience in civil society sector. Before the annexation of Crimea, she successfully implemented a series of cultural and educational projects and civic initiatives promoting the Crimean Tatar people’s culture and developing civil society in Ukraine. Since 2014, CrimeaSOS has become an implementing partner of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine (UNHCR) in programs related to the protection of IDPs.

On October 25, 2019, Tamila Tasheva won the Polish Sergio Vieira di Mello Award in the “Personality” category. The award is determined annually in two equivalent categories: individual and non-governmental organization, whose activities are aimed at peaceful coexistence and cooperation between societies, religions and cultures.

11 06 2022

Maria Tomak

Maria Tomak — Head of the Crimea Platform Department at the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

Formerly, Ukrainian human rights activist, journalist, researcher, coordinator and co-founder of the Media Initiative for Human Rights.

Having started from volunteering for the Euromaidan SOS initiative during Euromaidan, Maria moved on to actively participate in documenting human rights violations in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s seizure of Crimea and delivering information on them both in Ukrainian society and the international community. In the summer of 2014, Maria started dealing with the cases of Ukrainian citizens arrested by Russian Federation on political motives by Russia, and further was a coordinator of the LetMyPeopleGo campaign to free them, including by participating in the court hearing in Chechnya as one of the witness of the defence of Ukrainian prisoners Klykh and Karpiuk. Today, Maria focuses on cooperating with Ukrainian structures to advocate for the release of Ukrainian illegally held by Russia. She is a co-founderш of the NGO Media Initiative for Human Rights and conducts journalistic investigation human rights violations related to Russian aggression from both sides of the conflict. As well, Maria is a co-author several documentaries dedicated to the bloodiest days on Euromaidan and the war in Donbas. In 2017 she has received a national human rights prize for the personal contribution to the defending of human rights in Ukraine. She has significant experience in international advocacy at the level of international intergovernmental organizations and particular governments. In 2020 she has obtained the Master of Jurisprudence degree from the School of Law of Loyola University Chicago (Rule of Law for Development Program, located in John Felice Rome Center, Italy). In recent years Maria used to cooperate with USAID Human Rights in Action Program as an advocacy expert. “Maria Tomak”