DISINFO: UN are fabricating human rights violations in Crimea
SUMMARY
Ukrainians living in Crimea accuse the United Nations of making up human rights violations on the peninsula. This claim was in response to a UN resolution adopted on November 19 condemning human rights violations in Crimea which refers to Russia as the “occupying power”. The resolution is based on myths as there are no human rights violations taking place in Crimea. According to Anastasia Gridchina, the president of the Ukrainian Community in Crimea, the “UN has never visited Crimea, has not spoken to Ukrainians or Crimean Tatars about life there and is inventing myths and stories about non-existent persecution”.
RESPONSE
First of all, the Ukrainian Community in Crimea is a Kremlin controlled organization, headed by members of Russia’s ruling party United Russia. The organization was established in 2016, two years after Russia annexed Crimea and its purpose is to showcase a positive life for Ukrainians on the occupied peninsula. Gridchina’s accusation that the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission did not visit Crimea is telling as the UN resolution condemns Russia for failing to provide access to Crimea for the Mission, despite the Mission’s mandate calling for such access. Claims that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights did not speak with Crimean Tatars and victims of human rights violations are untrue. According to Fiona Fraser, the head of the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, data was collected through personal interviews and monitoring of court proceedings and trials in Crimea. Presenting the Mission’s report in Kyiv on December 12, Fraser outlined concrete examples of human rights violations against Crimean Tatars, indiscriminate arrests, detentions, torture, ill-treatment and restrictions on freedom of assembly and expression. Only in November of this year, the UN recorded 49 arrests of Crimean Tatars for holding individual peaceful protests, 10 unlawful searches and 18 raids of Crimean Tatars’ homes. Further debunking by Stopfake www.stopfake.org/en/fake-un-fabricating-human-rights-violations-in-crimea/, .