On April 28, our Association’s expert, Professor Borys Babin, held a meeting in Kyiv with representatives of the Ukrainian Monitoring Initiative of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, discussing current human dimension and human rights issues in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, including Crimea.
The expert presented the OSCE representatives with information on the activities of the ARC over the past months, including cooperation with the UN. EU and Council of Europe’s human rights bodies and activities at OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meetings in Warsaw and Vienna, also at the International Crimea Platform conference, dedicated to protecting prisoners of war, civil hostages, journalism, and combating racial discrimination, hate speech, fake news, and propaganda.
During the meeting, Dr. Babin briefed the OSCE representatives on the current social and economic situation and the illegal militarization in Crimea, including the intensification of pro-aggressor propaganda at all levels, including schools and kindergartens.
The Association’s expert also described the collapse of Crimean “economics” and the ongoing aggressor’s increase of “tax” pressure on the peninsula, as well as the developments in the illegal “nationalization” of real estate and businesses in the AR of Crimea and Sevastopol, as well as the aggressor’s campaign to “confiscate” land plots.
The expert provided OSCE representatives with new information on repression in Crimea, including cases of forced abductions, with relevant specific examples.
The expert also described the aggressor’s ongoing repressions in the so-called “Crimean Tatar battalion cases” and against members of local mejlises of Crimean Tatars in the Russia-occupied part of Kherson Region, as well as the consequences of the environmental disaster involving the “Volgoneft” tankers and the negative humanitarian consequences of the criminal involvement of Crimean residents in the crews of the Russian tanker fleet.
Our cooperation with OSCE structures will be continued.
