On May UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination published own Concluding observations CERD/C/UKR/CO/24-26 on the combined twenty-fourth to twenty-sixth periodic reports of Ukraine, devoted to issues of execution the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Ukraine’s periodic reports and relevant Committee’s activities on its 115th session were devoted to realisation of Convention not by aggressor State, but by Ukraine.
But as Ukrainian governmental position, so relevant reports on human defenders, transmitted to Committee before session, including comments of our Association and Crimean Tatar Resource Center were devoted also to issues of Russian aggression, including occupation of Ukrainian territories, such as the Crimea, where relevant violations of Convention are committing permanently.
So the Committee stressed deep concerns in the Concluding observations that the ongoing war, the result of full-scale military attack by Russia against Ukraine in February 2022 and the occupation and illegal attempted annexation of the Crimea, as well as the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions later by Russia pose severe challenges for Ukraine in fully implementing its obligations under the Convention, particularly as Ukraine has no effective control over the territories under occupation by the Russian armed forces.
The Committee recalled also in the Concluding observations that the implementation of the Convention serves as a crucial safeguard to guarantee the full respect and enjoyment of rights by individuals belonging to groups vulnerable to racial discrimination, including within the context of armed conflicts.
Regarding the Crimean Tatar issue the Committee noted with appreciation the adoption, in July 2021, of the Law of Ukraine on Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine that promotes the rights of Indigenous Peoples and recognizes their cultural rights and its regulations, also as the consultations with representative bodies of Indigenous Peoples and steps for the consolidating their legal status.
The Committee also recommended Ukraine to finalise the administrative procedure for Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar to obtain legal status as the representative body of Indigenous People regarding the law mentioned.
Also the Committee, regarding other issues stressed by our Association and Center, recommended Ukraine to give effect to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, and to conduct thorough and impartial investigations into all allegations of separate cases of racial profiling by law enforcement, to strengthen legal assistance to victims of racial discrimination, to take measures to identify and prevent discriminatory attitudes in the judicial system.
