Last week a report on 'Cases of violation of human rights in Crimea' was presented at the OSCE conference on human rights in Warsaw. “After the illegal annexation of Crimea, the level of freedom of religion and cultural specifics has reduced. People who support the integrity of Ukraine, Ukrainian symbols, and important events for Ukraine are being treated with hostility. Ukrainian education was eliminated, and parents have no opportunity to provide their children with an education. There is the same situation in the Tatar culture,” Ukrinform cites the OSCE High Commissionaire for Ethnic Minorities, Astrid Thors. The report on the human rights situation in Crimea states that “the situation with guaranteed human rights and basic rights has worsened radically for the majority of local citizens and refugees, especially for pro-Ukrainian activists, journalists and the Crimean Tatar Community.”
Georgy Muradov, General Secretary of the Russian Association of International Cooperation, Deputy Prime Minister of Crimea, has an absolutely different point of view. He thinks that the OSCE report on human rights in Crimea is a copy of the U.S. State Department’s position, while the facts about developments which have happened in Crimea this year are misinterpreted.
“I would recommend that the representatives of the mission on evaluation of the situation of human rights in Crimea check the Ukrainian constitution itself, and the constitution of the Republic of Crimea, and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea before that, and in their development. In the Constitution of Ukraine, after the very difficult situation which Ukraine had with Crimea in the early 90s, searches for some serious compromise wordings were carried out. They resulted in the fact that in the Ukrainian constitution, as the Ukrainian authorities state, it is the constitution of a unitary state, a whole section appeared there. Just imagine, in the constitution of a unitary state, a whole section devoted to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. For any legal expert, especially for people who are versed in state law, this by itself is either a manifestation of the absurd, or some compromise at an attempt to preserve Crimea as a part of Ukraine. And within this framework, in the framework of this section, the article 138, paragraph 2, says that the Autonomous Republic of Crimea has the right to organize and conduct its own referendums. This is one component of the legal framework of the referendum conducted in Crimea last year.”
According to Muradov, there is an important international component: “These are the principles of international law, inscribed in the UN Declaration on Human Rights and in the European Conventions concerning human rights. There was a threat to the Crimean population, and there were slogans that "Crimea is either Ukrainian, or empty." Militants of Right Sector were heading there, "friendship trains" were prepared. All this provided full justification for carrying out a referendum in Crimea, by the Crimean people, the multinational people of Crimea. Thus, before making statements about the fact that the annexation of Crimea took place, our opponents did not bother to study international law and the development of the state law of Ukraine and, at the time, of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.”
Muradov thinks that the activities of various institutions of the OSCE raise many doubts. “But still, we are not going to isolate Russia or isolate ourselves from international organizations. It would be a huge mistake. We must strengthen our position in the OSCE countries. Our allies in the Eurasian Economic Union, those countries that maintain friendly relations with Russia, should elevate their voice in these organizations too,” the Vice-Premier of Crimea said.
At the same time, he is sure that the situation will change in many countries of the EU: “Any event that occurs in Europe begins to cause more and more disagreements, debates, disputes and ranting within the framework of European Union. We have recently witnessed how the elections were held in Greece. There, the party that won was in favor of cooperation with Russia, against various sanctions. Today we have witnessed the electoral process in Catalonia. This is also a certain signal. Not only for Spain, but also for the whole European Union. These processes are under way. And the recent Austrian elections also had an ambiguous result. In the European Union itself, there is already a solid group of states that are against the exacerbation of relations with Russia, against the sanctions policy, which harms the countries of the EU themselves. That is why we just need to strengthen the work now. Thank God, Russia firmly stands on its own feet. And I think that, in the near future, it is certainly not a quick process, but in the next 10-15 years the situation will change radically. Including on the European political platform."
