34st session of the UN Human Rights Council
Agenda item 9
General debate
March 20, 2017
Mr. President,
As the Russian Federation continues to violate international law, including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Ukraine initiated the hearing in the International Court of Justice to seek relief for these violations.
With respect to CERD, Ukraine requested the Court to order urgent provisional measures, according to which the Russian Federation shall, in particular:
- refrain from any act of racial discrimination against persons, groups of persons, or institutions in the territory under its effective control, including Crimea;
- cease and desist from acts of political and cultural suppression against the ethnic Ukrainian people in Crimea, including suspending restrictions on Ukrainian-language education and respecting ethnic Ukrainian-language and educational rights, as well as against the Crimean Tatar people, including suspending the decree banning the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and refraining from enforcement of this decree and any similar measures;
- take all necessary steps to halt the disappearance of Crimean Tatar individuals and to promptly investigate those disappearances that have already occurred.
Thank you, Mr. President.