From April 18, the 22nd session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues on the general theme “Indigenous Peoples, human health, planetary and territorial health and climate change: a rights-based approach” is being held at the UN Headquarters in New York.
As the Association has already written, representatives of the Crimean Tatar people took an active part in the work of the Forum, in particular from the Crimean Tatar Resource Center (CTRC), with which we cooperate fruitfully, in particular in the dimension of combating climate change, caused by Russian aggression, which, among other things, we jointly discussed at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in November 2022, in the Egyptian Sharm-el-Sheikh.
In addition to the already mentioned speeches at the Forum and interaction with its participants, in particular on the issues of criminal militarization of occupied Crimea by the aggressor, of racial discrimination of the Crimean Tatars by Russia, including against athletes and prisoners of war, on the reintegration of the peninsula, experts of the CTRC held a number of important meetings at the UN event.
In particular, they met with the President of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Binota M. Dhamai, as well as with the consultant on international environmental issues, Dr. David Gordon, and with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Francisco Cali Tzay, with experts from Columbia and Harvard Universities.
CTRC experts told the UN officials about the situation of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine in the conditions of war and about the Crimean Platform, inviting them to participate in the expert network on restoring the rights of indigenous peoples.
It should be noted in this dimension the announced statement of the member of the UN Permanent Forum, Keith M. Harper, who demanded from the Special Rapporteur Cali Tzay to investigate the cases of contempt and violation of the rights of indigenous peoples, in particular the Crimean Tatars, by Russia. In this aspect, special documents developed by the UN on the processes of transitional justice and establishing the truth, presented at the UN Forum, can be useful.
CTRC experts have agreed to hold a number of international events with the involvement of international experts in the coming six months, and we will inform in the near future about the priority joint steps to protect the rights of population in Russia-occupied Crimea.
