Ukrainian and foreign experts continue to respond to the Black Sea ecological disaster, which began after the sinking of the Russian tankers “Volgoneft” in the Kerch Strait. As it was noted by the Honored Scientist and Technologist of Ukraine, leading specialist of the Institute of Forensic Expertise named after M.S. Bokarius Igor Kraynov, the preliminary study of our Association on the Russian oil fleet and the current marine ecological disaster raises strategic issues of global ecological safety of marine waters.
Professor Kraynov agreed with our thesis that the greatest man-made ecological danger to the world’s oceans is the Russian oil tanker fleet, which is in a catastrophic technical condition.
The expert emphasized that the ecological disaster of “Volgoneft-212” and “Volgoneft-239” near the Kerch Strait violated the collective interests of local communities, the principles of environmentally safe management, adequate housing, democratic and fair international order and international solidarity.
Therefore, as the specialist of the Institute of Forensic Expertise named after M.S. Bokarius stated, in order to protect the rights of the population of Crimea, including the indigenous Crimean Tatar people, to a safe and healthy environment and life safety guaranteed by international law, as well as to determine the damage and compensate for the damage, Ukraine should conduct criminal proceedings on the fact of a crime against the environment of Crimea.
As part of this criminal proceeding, Professor Kraynov emphasized, it is imperative to conduct a comprehensive commission forensic engineering and technical examination as part of an engineering and environmental study and life safety.

As the Estonian expert on collective rights, former member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples, Oliver Loode noted in this regard, “I can list the articles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that Russia appears to be violating right now,” causing this environmental disaster, while Russia does not support the Declaration, does not recognize the collective rights of indigenous peoples, and does not guarantee the rights of the Crimean Tatars.
The expert proposed making a recommendation on this matter to the next report of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples, the session of which will begin on April 21. He emphasized that in such situations, international solidarity is important for a global response to the violation of the rights of indigenous peoples, citing as an example the case of indigenous peoples’ protests against the construction of the Keystone Pipeline System in the United States and Canada.
Oliver Loode emphasized that activism, lawsuits, public activity, media involvement, and “making it into a global story” should be part of the strategy for protecting the violated rights of indigenous peoples to the environment at the global level.

In this dimension, Yuri Voloshin, member of the Board of Directors of the European Public Law Organization, pointed out that the analysis of the mechanisms and factors causing harm by the current Black Sea environmental disaster should take into account the extensive case law of European countries such as Greece, Spain and France, as well as the accumulated standards of the Council of Europe.
It should be noted, Professor Voloshin emphasized, that the Reykjavik Process began in 2024, which developed the provisions of the relevant CoE Declaration, adopted at the 4thSummit of Heads of State and Government in May 2023, that reflects the triple crisis of pollution, loss of biodiversity and climate change.
This process was developed in the PACE recommendation “Towards Council of Europe strategies for healthy seas and oceans to counter the climate crisis” 2273 (2024), as well as in its Resolution 2546 (2024), which emphasized the role of the Berne Convention.
In addition, Professor Voloshin added, the experience of the Council of Europe is reflected in the Landscape Convention, which covers coastal areas, and in the relevant practice of the European Court of Human Rights regarding the protection of rights during maritime use, reflected in its decisions in the cases of “Alatulkkila and Others v. Finland” in 2005, “Mangouras v. Spain” in 2009, “Depalle v. France”, “Brosset-Triboulet and Others v. France” in 2010 and “Yașar v. Romania” in 2019.
But if in the Mediterranean the relevant experience was implemented in the format of external cooperation of the Council of Europe under the EUR-OPA Major Hazards Agreement, then in other semi-enclosed basins, such as the Baltic or the Black Sea, the relevant processes have not acquired a systematic nature.
Professor Voloshin added that he raised these issues last year at the working conference “Seafarers market in the face of warfare” in Gdynia, Poland, which was attended by representatives of the maritime business, inspectors of international organizations, officials of the Polish Maritime Office and the management of maritime universities.

Now, taking into account the challenges to the marine environment, the relevant legal mechanisms will be applied repeatedly in practical situations.

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