У якості доповідачів на зустрічі виступили уповноважений Секретаріату Представника з питань свободи преси ОБСЄ А.Ботагаров, представник Офісу Верховного Комісара ООН з прав людини Д.Бояніч, експерт неурядової правозахисної організації “Amnesty International” Д.Крівошеєв та представник ІКОМОС М.Пеллетіє. 

Промовці надали детальну інформацію щодо поточної ситуації у сферах компетенції ЮНЕСКО, наголосивши на значному її погіршенні з моменту підготовки попередніх доповідей. Зокрема, представники партнерських інституцій навели конкретні факти порушень прав людини та утисків національних меншин, свободи віросповідання, свободи преси та вираження поглядів, безпеки журналістів, доступу до освіти рідною мовою тощо.

Посол України у Франції, Постійний представник України при ЮНЕСКО Олег Шамшур поінформував присутніх щодо значного погіршення ситуації на півострові у всіх сферах компетенції Організації. Олег Шамшур наголосив на необхідності продовження роботи із запровадження механізму безпосереднього моніторингу ситуації у Криму та висловив готовність України до посилення взаємодії на цьому напрямку.

Захід, який відвідали близько 120 акредитованих при ЮНЕСКО представників постійних місій країн-членів та співробітників Секретаріату Організації (у порівнянні із близько 100 учасниками минулої інформаційної зустрічі), має вкрай важливе значення у контексті політико-дипломатичних зусиль нашої держави з привернення належної уваги світового співтовариства до ситуації на території тимчасово окупованої Російською Федерацією Автономної Республіки Крим (Україна). З боку ЮНЕСКО - найбільш представницької міжнародної організації системи ООН було вкотре підтверджено незаконність анексії Криму та Севастополя.

 Текст промови Посла України у Франції О.Шамшура (англ.):

 

Mr. Assistant Director-General,

Distinguished representatives of the international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations,

Dear Colleagues,

Let me start with expressing our appreciation of the work done by the Director-General and the Secretariat of UNESCO to organize this information meeting. I also want to stress that we highly value contributions to our today’s proceedings on behalf of the Offices of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media and Amnesty International.

Upon the request of the Director-General Ukraine has also submitted information on the latest developments in Crimea, largely covering the period following the 200^th session of the Executive Board. It was included into the document under 201 EX/5, Part I (G) prepared by the Secretariat for the next session of the Executive Board. 

Ukraine has been providing the updates on the situation in Crimea within the areas of UNESCO competence to every session of the Executive Board for three years already, and those documents, sadly, do not become any shorter. We are obviously dealing with the pattern and practice of violations of human rights by the occupying power.  Situation in the fields of freedom of expression, conscience, and religion; the right to a peaceful assembly and association; freedom of the media and access to information; the right to a fair trial and effective remedy; the right to education in one’s native language; and linguistic and cultural rights are of particular concern.

Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians constitute the most vulnerable groups subject to human rights violations, including those within the scope of UNESCO mandate.

On 23 March 2017, just several days before this meeting, we have learned that the illegal detention of Akhtem Chiygoz, the Deputy Head of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, has been prolonged for another three months: this fact, together with many others already mentioned today, attests to the reinforcement of repressions targeting Mejlis, a representative body of the Crimean-Tatar people. Suffering from intolerance and discrimination practiced by the occupying authorities thousands of Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians are being pressed out of Crimea, leaving their homes there for the Ukrainian mainland.

Over 20 000 Crimean Tatars had to flee the peninsula exactly because of the sense of insecurity, lack of opportunities to enjoy their cultural and linguistic rights, celebrate their traditions, exercise their religion. Against this backdrop statements of the occupying power concerning the support of the national cultural autonomy of this people sound cynical, at the very least.

To add to this, Ukrainian culture is becoming an endangered species on the peninsula. Education in Ukrainian language is disappearing in Crimea through pressure exerted on school administrations, teachers, parents and children.

The occupying authorities have been deliberately creating an Orwellian environment in Crimea via suppression of any dissenting view, imposing severe limitations on media freedom, switching off Ukrainian television channels, closing Crimean Tatar media organizations, intimidating and persecuting independent journalists. Information on the situation in Crimea submitted by Ukraine to the Director-General clearly shows that illegal actions against media are being committed at least every week. And let me stress that those are the registered cases only.

Following Russian occupation, Ukraine has been forcefully dispossessed of the World Heritage site “Ancient City of Tauric Chersonese and its Chora”, numerous historical and architectural sites of a national significance, museums, biosphere reserves, scientific centers, including those that were actively participating in UNESCO-led programs and research activities. We have every reason to be seriously concerned about the state of those objects, problems related to their proper functioning, especially the use of some of them for military purposes.

The occupying authorities have intensified their activities aimed at illegal transfer and redistribution of the cultural property belonging to Ukraine to the ownership of the Russian federal governmental institutions. The illicit trafficking of Ukrainian cultural property from Crimean museums for exhibitions has assumed appalling proportions.

Situation has been further exacerbated by the lack of permanent and efficient international monitoring adding to the atmosphere of total impunity. Russia hampers or bans access to the peninsula of the international observers and monitoring groups that collect information on the violations of human rights in Crimea. For example, in November 2016 the Russian Federation denied access to the Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to at least three delegations – of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, and the Committee of experts of the European Charter of regional languages and languages of national minorities.

In addition, the UN monitoring mission for human rights in Ukraine, acting at the invitation of the Ukrainian government since March 2014 and having within its mandate a provision on monitoring the human rights situation in Crimea, cannot get access to the occupied peninsula for almost three years.

Ukraine welcomes the UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/71/205 "Situation of human rights in Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine)”, adopted on 19 December 2016. This important document confirms a clear definition on the status of Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol as part of the territory of Ukraine, condemns the temporary occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and reaffirms the non-recognition of its annexation. It is essential that the Resolution condemns abuses of fundamental freedoms, including the freedoms of expression, religion or belief, and requests the occupying power to end all abuses against the residents of Crimea, in particular discriminatory measures and practices, as well as to revoke immediately the decision declaring the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People an extremist organization.

The General Assembly urges the Russian Federation to ensure the unimpeded access of international human rights monitoring mechanisms to the temporary occupied peninsula to monitor and report on the situation according to their mandates. This provides UNESCO as an integral part of the UN system with a clear guidance and a powerful tool in the implementation of the full-fledged monitoring mechanism designed to ensure a direct monitoring over the human rights situation on the peninsula within the scope of mandate of the Organization.

Within this context, I am pleased to acknowledge progress in the implementation of the relevant decisions of the Executive Board. In particular we have already started with the Secretariat of UNESCO a joint elaboration of modalities of future activities that fall within Director-General’s intention “to explore the possibility for the Secretariat to organize a direct monitoring to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Ukraine)” made public on the eve of the last session of the Board. I concur with Assistant Director-General on the positive assessment of his visit to Kyiv.

Ukraine is ready to continue and reinforce our dialogue with the Secretariat, members of the Executive Board, member States of UNESCO to ensure that this process is followed by practical actions corresponding to Executive Board decisions. The direct monitoring activities of UNESCO Secretariat should become an important instrument to redress the situation in Crimea within the spheres of this organization’s competence.