“Crimean Tatars in Crimea, and especially those opposing Crimea’s illegal annexation or expressing dissent, are being subjected to numerous patterns of serious violations of human rights, persecution, discrimination, and stigmatisation by the Russian occupying authorities”, said Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, in a report published on Tuesday 18 April.
This situation is all the more worrying, she adds, as it is “reinforced by a culture of impunity for such violations that is prevalent in the peninsula”.
Recalling Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, the Commissioner denounces “a tragic cascade of events and measures characterised by grave and repeated violations of the human rights of Crimean Tatars”.
These measures “overall” contribute to an environment that stigmatises Tatars and sows ethnic division, creating antagonisms between the general population of Crimea and Tatars.
She calls for an immediate halt to all arbitrary arrests, harassment and raids of the homes of Tatar human rights defenders, activists, officials, journalists and ordinary members of this ethnic group.
International humanitarian law prohibits an occupying power from applying its penal laws on occupied territory, the Commissioner recalls, calling for an end to prosecutions based on the misuse of Russian laws against extremism and terrorism, an end to transfers of detainees to Russia, and respect for the freedom of assembly and expression for rights defenders, activists and journalists.
The forced conscription and military mobilisation of Crimean Tatars must also be stopped, she said, calling for the protection of those who try to escape from it in any country where they seek refuge.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/6cq (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)