The United Nations General Assembly on Dec. 22 passed a resolution calling Russia to stop violating human rights in Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula invaded and annexed by Russia in 2014.
The UN urges Russia to “bring an immediate end to all violations and abuses against residents of Crimea, in particular reported discriminatory measures and practices, arbitrary detentions and arrests, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, revoke all discriminatory legislation and hold accountable those responsible for those violations and abuses.”
Many human rights violations were reported in Crimea since March 2014, when Russia invaded and annexed the peninsula. They include political persecutions of the locals sympathetic with Ukraine, and persecutions of Crimean Tatars.
The resolution was passed by 65 votes in favor of it, with 70 nations abstaining and 27 voting against it.
and filed to UN on Oct. 31. While the draft is available on the UN website, the passed document has not been published yet as of the time this article was out. The resolution got a registration number No.A/C.3/73/L.48.
Importantly, the UN resolution recognizes as political prisoners three Ukrainians from Crimea imprisoned by Russia: Oleg Sentsov, Volodymyr Balukh, and Emir-Huseyn Kuku.
According to Serhiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, this resolution stands out because the UN very rarely names specific victims in similar resolutions. Kyslytsya wrote in an article for a Ukrainian news website Europeiska Pravda in November that the last times the UN called to stop repressions against specific people, they were Nelson Mandela and a Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi.
The document calls for granting access to the Ukrainian political prisoners by the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, which Russia has previously denied, and the representatives of the international organizations.
The resolution also contains the appeal to the Russian Federation to ensure consular communications for the Ukrainian citizens detained in Russia relying on the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of which Russia is a signatory party.
It also calls upon Russia to respect the ruling of the International Court of Justice dated April 19, 2017, which aims to ensure respect for cultural rights in Crimea. This order also seeks to ensure the development of the Crimean Tatar institutions, including the Mejlis, the main representative body of the Crimean Tatars.
It was the second Ukraine-related resolution passed by the General Assembly this week.
The resolution No. A/73/L.47 was passed on Dec. 17 under the title “The Problem of Militarization of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol (Ukraine), as Well as Parts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.”
In it, the UN General Assembly called for Russia to release the Ukrainian vessels captured by the Russian forces off the Crimean coast in an attack on Nov. 25.
