Field Meeting of Committee of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Human Rights, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations was Held in Crimea

11 April 2013

On April 11, 2013 the field meeting of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Human Rights, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations was held in the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea.

This meeting was initiated by the Head of the Subcommittee on the Ethnic Policy, Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and National Minorities, Head of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Jemilev.

The meeting was attended by the members of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Human Rights, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations, headed by Valery Patskan, Head of the Subcommittee on the Ethnic Policy, Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and National Minorities, Head of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Jemilev, First Vice Chairman of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Human Rights, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations Andrei Shevchenko, MP of Ukraine Alexander Mochkov, Head of the Parliamentary faction “Qurultay-Rukh” in the VR ARC, First Vice Chairman of Mejlis Refat Chubarov, MP of Crimea, Deputy Chairman of Mejlis Remzi Ilyasov, UNHCR Regional Representative for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine Mr. Oldrich Andrysek, as well as the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in Crimea Viktor Plakida, a range of MPs of Crimea and heads of the national communities and associations of Crimea.

According to the Head of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Human Rights, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations Valery Patskan, the main topic of the meeting was the implementation of the Program on settling and resettlement of the deported Crimean Tatars and persons belonging to other nationalities, their adaptation and resettlement in Ukraine for the period up to 2015.

“It’s a common knowledge that the problem of the persons deported on the national grounds is one of the gravest in Ukraine, inherited from the Soviet regime,”- V. Patskan told in his opening speech. “The policy of the deportation of the whole peoples and national groups, the forcible exiling of people on the national grounds from their historical native lands were made in the roughest way. The limitation and violation of the right of these people were gross. Nobody took into consideration the human rights at that time. Nobody evaluated and took into consideration their future destiny. But today we must and are able to solve this problem,”- he said.

We would remind you that on March 6, 2013 in Kyiv the members of theCommittee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Human Rights, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations during the discussion of the public and political situation in Crimea, relating to the ensuring of the rights and freedoms of citizens, supported the suggestions of the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Ethnic Policy, Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and National Minorities, Head of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Jemilev, as to the necessity to hold the field meeting in Crimea in order to adopt the necessary measures to settle the conflict.

“The Committee of the VRU also expressed its readiness to hold its field meeting in Crimea in case the conflict situation won’t be settled,”- was told at the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on March 6, 2013.