On August 7, experts from our Association, Borys Babin and Anna Prykhodko, took part in the round table “Legal Protection of Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine in Conditions of War: Preservation of Identity, International Solidarity and State Policy”, which was held in Kyiv by the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience on the occasion of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
The event became a platform for professional dialogue between representatives of state authorities, indigenous peoples of Ukraine, international organizations, the scientific community and the expert environment.
The Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the AR Crimea, officials of the State Service, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, specialists from specialized universities, the leadership of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and Karaite public structures discussed the current challenges associated with ensuring the rights of indigenous peoples in conditions of large-scale Russian aggression, as well as the further implementation of state policy in this area.
The round table also included the Deputy Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine Noel Calhoun, Executive Dean of the College of Arts, Law & Social Sciences at Brunel University London, Joshua Castellino and the Senior Researcher at the Institute for Minority Rights of Eurac Research Sergiu Constantin.
In his own speech at the round table panel dedicated to measures to implement the legislation of Ukraine on indigenous peoples, Professor Babin pointed out the great attention paid by international institutions and supranational judicial bodies to the processes of legalization of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people in Ukrainian jurisdiction.
The expert of the Association emphasized the crucial importance of the process of appropriate legalization for the future processes of reintegration of Crimea after its de-occupation and stressed the need for the urgent completion of this legalization by fully introducing the Mejlis into administrative, budgetary, and property legal relations.
