DISINFO: UN lies about violation of human rights in Crimea

Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative aboutCrimea. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres published a second report on the human rights situation in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, which Russia annexed in 2014. The report covers the period from July 1 to December 31, 2019, and is based on monitoring and documenting violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Crimea. The report deals with torture and ill-treatment of Crimeans by the FSB of Russia, violations of the rights of detainees, including systematic beatings, unreasonable personal searches, refusal to meet with relatives and lawyers, charges of publishing on social networks and interfering with the work of journalists; about the military draft in the ranks of the army of the occupier and about many other violations of Russia in Crimea. Earlier, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, during a debate at the 44th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, condemned mass torture, the attack on freedom of speech and obstruction of the activities of public organisations in occupied Crimea. Bachelet emphasised that UN staff are "ready to engage with the Russian Federation, as the occupying Power, as well as with Ukraine, in order to strengthen protection of human rights on the peninsula and throughout the country." Ukrainian human rights organisationCrimea SOS emphasises that in 2019, the largest number of criminal cases against the Crimean Tatars were recorded since the beginning of Crimea's occupation. In total, from 2014 to 2018,Crimea SOS recorded at least 144 cases of politically motivated criminal prosecution of Crimeans: at least 66 people are being detained; at least 15 people abducted by security forces have not yet been found; at least 20 people were killed; at least 290 people were tortured; at least 349 people became victims of politically motivated administrative prosecution. The authors of the report recorded at least 372 cases of illegal detentions, as well as at least 340 politically motivated searches, the Crimea SOS report says (page 8-9). InDecember 2019, the Office of the Prosecutor of the UN International Criminal Court published a report on the preliminary investigation activities for 2019, which relates to the situation in the occupied Ukrainian territories. The report also lists the crimes committed by Russia against Crimeans. Among them, torture, abduction, murder, arrests and other egregious cases of violation of human rights by Russian invaders were recorded (paragraphs 272, 273 of the report).