On November 3, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, New York, a side-event on the human rights situation in the temporary occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine, was held.

The event brought together diplomats from Kyiv, New York, Geneva, Vienna and Strasbourg who deal with human rights issues.

In her opening remarks, First Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Emine Dzhaparova stressed that the Russian occupation authorities have turned Crimea into a peninsula of fear, where repressions against Ukrainian citizens who oppose the occupation continue to take place.

In particular, the Occupying Power continues the policy of illegal detention of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars in order to further transfer them as hostages to Russian jails. Just today, Russia’s South District Military Court unlawfully sentenced three citizens of Ukraine to imprisonment in another so-called “Hizb ut-Tahrir” case. "We will not leave our citizens and will do everything possible for their return to Ukraine," the diplomat promised.

The Russian occupying authorities’ policy to change the demographic structure on the peninsula also does not go unnoticed by the international community. The First Deputy Minister expressed her conviction that the transfer of the Russian population to the territory of the occupied Crimea is illegal under international humanitarian law.

Deprivation of the right to land, religion, education and language, forced change of citizenship, conscription into the Russian army, ban on the activities of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, and persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Crimea – all these violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, according to Emine Dzhaparova, will receive a proper assessment from the United Nations.

Also participated in the event: Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Anton Korynevych, Vice-Chairman of the Association of International Law of Ukraine Mykola Hnatovsky, Archbishop of the Crimean Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Klyment, Chairman of the Zmina Human Rights Center Tetiana Pechonchyk, Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of Crimean Tatar people Nariman Dzhelialov and public journalist Nariman Memedeminov.

Participants stressed the importance of two reports by the UN Secretary-General on the human rights situation in Crimea, which contained facts of large-scale attacks on human rights on the temporarily occupied peninsula and Russia's failure to comply with its obligations under the international law.

Therefore, it is important to continue monitoring this issue by the Secretary General, which, in particular, is one of the key elements of the updated draft resolution of the UN General Assembly on the human rights situation in the temporarily occupied Crimea, which will be considered by the UN General Assembly in November-December this year.