On January, 31 International Court of Juctice delivered its Judgment on the merits in the case concerning Application of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Ukraine v. Russian Federation). International Court found, regarding events of Russian aggression against Ukraine since 2014 in Eastern Regions, that Russia, by failing to take measures to investigate facts contained in information received from Ukraine regarding persons who have allegedly committed an offence set forth in Article 2 of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, has violated its obligation under Article 9, paragraph 1, of the said Convention.
Also International Court found, that Russia, by the way in which it has implemented its “educational system” in the Crimea after 2014 with regard to school education in the Ukrainian language, has violated its obligations under Articles 2, paragraph 1 “a”, and 5 “e” point “v” of the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
Those CERD norms stressed that each State must undertake to engage in no act or practice of racial discrimination against persons, groups of persons or institutions and to en sure that all public authorities and public institutions, national and local, shall act in conformity with this obligation; such State must undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the уconomic, social and cultural rights, in particular: the right to education and training.
In point 369 of Judgment Court established that the “legislative and other practices” of Russia with regard to school education in the Ukrainian language in the Crimea applied to all children of Ukrainian ethnic origin whose parents wished them to be instructed in the Ukrainian language and thus did not merely concern individual cases. As such, it appears that this practice was intended to lead to a “structural change in the educational system”, the Court stressed, therefore of the view that the conduct in question constitutes a pattern of racial discrimination.
Also International Court found, that Russia, by maintaining limitations on the Mejlis of Crimean Tatar People, has violated its obligation under paragraph 106 of the Court’s Order of 19 April 2017 indicating provisional measures.
