On April 16, 2015 during the 196th session of the Executive Board of UNESCO a meeting of the Programme and External Relations Commission was held, and the draft resolution “The situation in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine)”, submitted by Ukraine and supported in particular by the USA and EU member states, was adopted by the majority of votes of the members of the governing body.
In elaboration of the resolutions concerning the follow-up by UNESCO the situation in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea approved at its two previous sessions, held in 2014, the Executive Board of UNESCO urged the leaders of the Organization to introduce an effective mechanism of control of the situation on the peninsula in the spheres of UNESCO’s competence involving diversified sources of information, in particular, international missions, non-governmental organizations, independent journalists and experts circles.
In the draft resolution there is the call for the Director-General of UNESCO to organize, before the 197th session of the Executive Board, an information meeting to provide UNESCO Member States with recent data on the situation in Crimea in the spheres of competence of the Organization.
While the presentation of the document Permanent Representative of Ukraine to UNESCO, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine in the French Republic Oleg Shamshur underlined that because of the temporary occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol by the Russian Federation, the situation on the peninsula in the spheres of UNESCO’s competence – education, science, defense of cultural heritage, minority rights and freedom of speech, safety of journalists and problems of impunity – relentlessly deteriorated.