UN Committee recognizes imposition of Russian citizenship on Crimean residents as violation of human rights - Lubinets
The imposition of Russian citizenship on residents of the temporarily occupied Crimea is discrimination on the basis of nationality and violates human rights.
This was stated by the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets, Censor.NET reports.
"The imposition of Russian citizenship on the residents of the temporarily occupied Crimea is discrimination on the basis of nationality and violates human rights. This has been recognized by the UN Human Rights Committee," he said.
In addition, the Committee found that Russia illegally transfers Ukrainian citizens from the Crimean peninsula to its territory to serve their sentences, which is also a violation of human rights.
According to the Ombudsman, the UN Committee considered individual complaints from three Ukrainian citizens.
"One of them was detained before the occupation of the peninsula and then convicted under Russian law. The other two were convicted before the occupation of Crimea, and their sentences were later changed based on the Russian Criminal Code. All three were imposed Russian citizenship and sent to serve their sentences in Russia," Lubinets explained.
The UN Committee recognized that Russia had indeed violated human rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which it is a party. In particular:
- the detention of Ukrainian citizens by the Russian Federation is arbitrary, as they were convicted for actions committed before the Russian Federation extended its criminal legislation to Crimea;
- the transfer of Ukrainian citizens to Russia to serve their sentences there was illegal;
- the forced granting of Russian citizenship also violated the rights of Ukrainian citizens and constituted discrimination on the basis of nationality.
"The Committee considers that a person's nationality is an essential component of his or her identity and that protection against arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy includes protection against the forced imposition of a foreign nationality. The conclusion of the UN Human Rights Committee can be called historic without exaggeration. It forms a serious basis for further decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in similar Crimean cases. This conclusion is a precedent in the international arena and creates grounds for further responsibility of the Russian Federation for all violations," the Commissioner emphasized.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine recently recorded 85 cases of war-related sexual violence last year.
