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Sorry, this entry is only available in Ukrainian and Qt.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Ukrainian and Qt.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Ukrainian and Qt.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Ukrainian and Qt.

During the visit a meeting was held with Head of the Kherson Regional State Administration Serhiy Kozyr, Head of the Kherson Regional Council Oleksandr Samoilenko. 

The ambassadors visited the checkpoint Kalanchak on the administrative border with the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Administrative Services Center in Kherson and held a traditional meeting with Crimeans, internally displaced persons from Crimea and representatives of Crimean Tatar people.

“Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the European Union to Ukraine, Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Mr. Matti Maasikas, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Croatia to Ukraine Ms. Anica Djamić and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Slovenia to Ukraine Mr. Tomaž Mencin visited Kherson region at the invitation of the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea”

“We are working on a set of issues related to Crimea as a team of the Mission and that is in the vertical of the President of Ukraine. We set for themselves a number of priority tasks, in particular, strengthening the institutional capacity of the Mission, development and approval of the Strategy for Deoccupation and Reintegration of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, working on the internal track of the Crimea Platform and, of course, on the protection and realization of the rights of the indigenous people of Ukraine, in particular, Crimean Tatars. 

I can say with confidence that a lot has been done in the last 2 years: Decree on the Day of Resistance to Occupation; Decree on the establishment of Muslim holidays Ramadan and Eid al-Adha, which is very important for the entire Muslim community of Ukraine and its largest part – Crimean Tatars; Decree on the development of Crimean Tatar language for 2022-2032 and approval Crimean Tatar language on the basis of Latin alphabet; and finally what we had been waiting for a very long time – the Law on the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine, that will soon be signed by the President. 

The actual adoption of the law is one of the tasks within the framework of the Deoccupation Strategy. After all, the protection of cultural and religious social rights of indigenous peoples, in particular Crimean Tatars, is one of its tasks; the expected results of the Deoccupation Strategy include the restoration of the rights of Crimean Tatars. In fact, this is the restoration of historical justice for Crimean Tatars and other indigenous peoples.

The Strategy for Deoccupation has a framework character. The central executive bodies are working on a plan of measures for its implementation now. It is very important for us to fill it with the specific content.

We understand the importance of protecting the rights of the Crimean Tatar people and other indigenous people in the context of deoccupation.  We see it in Russian reactions to these legislative initiatives. I have often been asked “why do they have such a reaction?”. There are many reasons, one of them is the role of indigenous people in deoccupation.

If we look closely at the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, where Article 30 of the Declaration states: “Military activities shall not take place in the lands or territories of indigenous peoples, unless justified by a relevant public interest or otherwise freely agreed with or requested by the indigenous peoples concerned”. Russia has neglected the relevant norms while occupying Crimean peninsula and still continues to ignore this.

We understand that the law is not a dot, but only a comma before continuing further work in all areas. The speaker on the previous panel Mr. Krasovitsky said that only 2 books had recently been published in Crimean Tatar language, 600 copies each; none Crimean Tatar library is open, therefore, it is very important that within the framework of the action plan for the implementation of the Deoccupation Strategy and the Law “On the Indigenous People of Ukraine” we include such things and began to rectify the situation.

The state has to admit that a lot of time has been lost, but now we have to make more efforts and we see the political will on the relevant issues”, – Tamila Tasheva.

“Indigenous People Session” participants:

• Moderator: Yuliya Tyshchenko, Expert of the National Institute for Strategic Studies
• Snaver Seithkhalilev, Deputy Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories
• Lyubomyra Mandziy, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine
• Refat Chubarov, Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People
• Maksym Tkachenko, First Deputy Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, Deoccupation and Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories.

Details: https://ukraine30.com/

Anton Korynevych: “The topic of indigenous people and national communities resonates, and is very important in the context of different nationalities in our country, which all together, regardless of origin, form a single Ukrainian political nation. In law, there is a separate category called “indigenous people” and, accordingly, the equivalents of the Ukrainian phrase “indigenous people” exist in English, French and, of course, in other languages used in the international arena. “Indigenous people” is a distinct legal category that says that there is a certain people who historically for centuries, perhaps millennia, have lived in a certain territory, have a special connection with this territory, are a minority in the state and have no other state entity outside their nation state. Thus, this is a significant difference between the indigenous people and the national minority. National minorities, such as Hungarians or Russians, have their own nation states outside Ukraine. Accordingly, any argument of the Russian Federation that the Russians are the indigenous people of Ukraine – it is impossible to comment from the point of view of legal or from the point of view of activity of state bodies, because it is simply a trivial thesis”.

“On May 18, exactly on the day when we commemorated the victims of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted to the Verkhovna Rada as an urgent draft law of Ukraine “On Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine” and on July 1, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted this law by a constitutional majority. It is important because it fixes that three indigenous peoples living in Ukraine: Crimean Tatars, Karaites and Krymchaks have no other historical homeland than Crimean Peninsula. And, of course, the regulation and consolidation of their rights are especially important in the context of the temporary occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, when mass war crimes, crimes against humanity, illegal detentions, illegal searches and illegal arrests are committed against representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people. Terrible term arrests are issued by the so-called “courts”, courts of the Russian Federation, in fact for nothing, for the fact that a person simply reads a specific book or has a certain religious belief. This law is a framework, but it says that these indigenous peoples have rights that the state recognizes. These are cultural, linguistic, information rights, in particular the opportunity to have your own media, and, very importantly, it is an opportunity to have their own representative bodies that have a special status that allows them to have a dialogue with the Ukrainian authorities for the rights of indigenous peoples.

Of course, this is an important step forward, which means not only that Ukraine recognizes the rights of indigenous peoples and recognizes indigenous peoples as such, but also recognizes representative bodies and enables them to represent the interests of indigenous peoples in relations with the authorities of Ukraine. With this law, we have made great progress in what we call the internal track, the internal direction of work on the deoccupation and reintegration of Crimea. We have often talked about resolutions of international organizations, statements of foreign states, their parliaments, governments, and at the same time we had many of our domestic strong positional decisions, concerning the temporary occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and, accordingly, the indigenous peoples who live there. I think that recently, especially in the last year, we have two very important developments that have already become part of the legislation.

This is the adoption of the Strategy for Deoccupation and Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and, accordingly, the Law of Ukraine “On Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine”, which will enter into force when it is signed by the Head of State and published. This is a historic decision that both the state and the indigenous peoples have been waiting for 30 years. Ukraine thus shows its maturity, stability, ability, shows that it can properly regulat such important moments”, – Anton Korynevych, Permanent Representative  of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

“Law on National Communities” Session participants:

• Moderator: Sevgil Musayeva, Ukrainska Pravda, Editor-in-chief
• Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
• Dmytro Lubinets, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, Deoccupation and Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories in Donetsk, Luhansk Regions and Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations
• Anastasiya Hudyma, Director of the National Minority Broadcasting Coordination Center of the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine.

Details: https://ukraine30.com/

Members of the French Parliament (National Assembly and Senate), chairmen and members of France-Ukraine friendship and interparliamentary relations groups accompanied by the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea visited checkpoints “Kalanchak” and “Chaplynka” on the administrative border with the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, met with the Head of the Kherson Regional Council Oleksandr Samoilenko, Deputy Head of the Kherson Regional State Administration Mykola Yakymenko. 

“Members of the French Parliament (National Assembly and Senate), chairmen and members of France-Ukraine friendship and inter-parliamentary relations groups”