UN condemns Russian occupation of Crimea, calls for release of Ukrainian hostages
The UN General Assembly has given its final approval to the resolution on Russia’s human rights violations in Crimea and called for the undelayable release of the Ukrainians illegally held in custody in the peninsula.
Today the world sent a clear message to the Russian occupation authorities. Those responsible for the persecutions and violations of the human rights of the residents of Crimea will be brought to justice.
The international community has officially recognized the Russian Federation an occupier of the Ukrainian territory and condemned the numerous documented crimes of the occupation regime in Crimea. Those include murders, kidnapping, politically motivated arrests, prosecution, intimidation, torture and cruel treatment of prisoners, their illegal transfer to the territory of Russia, as well as the violations of freedom of conscience, religion, expression, assembly, and association.
The Assembly urges the occupying state to release without conditions all the Ukrainian citizens illegally detained, sentenced or transferred to Russian jails, immediately stop arbitrary arrests, torture, and other forms of inhuman or humiliating treatment of prisoners, and also punish those responsible for human rights violations.
#UNGA resolution defines Russia as an occupying state, #Crimea as a temporarily occupied territory of 🇺🇦, does not recognize its annexation pic.twitter.com/1zLFvoKun0
— UKR Mission to UN (@UKRinUN) December 19, 2016
The UNGA resolution calls on the Russian Federation to ensure safe working conditions for journalists and human rights defenders in the peninsula, open the access of international monitoring missions and collaborate with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Council of Europe, and OSCE regarding human rights situation in Crimea. The document specifically condemns the discrimination of Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainian in the occupied territory and demands Moscow immediately cancel the illegal ban of the Mejlis, the democratic representative body of the Crimean Tatar people.
