Ukrainian human rights defenders held a side event at Helsinki+50 Conference: how 11 years of the occupation of Crimea challenge the principles of the OSCE

On 31 July, a side-event “Crimea: 11 years of occupation – restoring justice, reinforcing OSCE commitments” was held in Helsinki, organised by Ukrainian NGOs: the Human Rights Centre ZMINA, the Crimean Human Rights Group, Almenda Center for Civic Education, Regional Centre for Human Rights, Crimean Process, Human Rights House Crimea and the Netherlands Helsinki Committee.

The event was part of the programme of the international conference Helsinki+50, marking the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Final Act. The conference brought together diplomats, politicians, and human rights defenders from the OSCE region to discuss current challenges to the human rights protection system.

The discussion focused on the colonisation of the peninsula, politically motivated persecution, militarisation of education, indoctrination of children and hate speech as a form of violation of the principles of the Helsinki Final Act.

Kseniia Korniienko from the Regional Centre for Human Rights reminded that 11 years ago, the Russian Federation began the illegal occupation of Crimea, violating Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the fundamental principles of the Helsinki Final Act.

“From the very first days, the occupation violates the principle of sovereign equality of states, as Russia behaves as if Crimea is its territory, imposing its legislation, institutions and identity on the population, which is de jure and de facto Ukrainian,” the human rights defender said.

She stressed that Russia’s policy in Crimea is an attempt to change the demographic composition of the peninsula through the systematic resettlement of Russian citizens: officials, judges, security forces, educators, doctors and pensioners, who are considered to be carriers of state ideology.

“This is not merely about staffing appointments, but a deliberate act of demographic engineering. Russia is using economic incentives, federal resettlement programmes and the displacement of Ukrainian specialists and businesses to ensure the dominance of Russian identity in the region,” Korniienko added. She called for the Helsinki Act to be updated, the establishment of a permanent OSCE mechanism to monitor compliance with commitments, and the adoption of a resolution recognising the demographic change in the occupied territories as illegal and demanding its cessation.

Viktoriia Nesterenko, a human rights defender and Project Manager of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA, spoke about politically motivated persecution in Crimea.

She stressed that Russia has continued to grossly violate international law since 2014: “The Human Rights Centre ZMINA has been documenting violations of human rights and international humanitarian law since the very beginning of the occupation of Crimea. During this time, we and our partner human rights organisations have documented a large number of different violations by the Russian Federation, and this number of violations is growing every year“.

The human rights defender drew attention to the fact that Russia does not recognise the annexation of Crimea as an occupation and applies its national legislation there. This leads to a systematic violation of the rights of the civilian population.

Viktoriia Nesterenko also noted that since the beginning of the war, Russia has been violating a number of international treaties, including those laid down in the Helsinki Final Act. Among the most common violations documented by ZMINA are politically motivated persecution for pro-Ukrainian position, journalistic activity or activism, as well as persecution on religious and ethnic grounds. Nesterenko stressed that Crimean Tatars are subjected to systematic repression: “Today we know about more than 220 political prisoners, most of whom are Crimean Tatars. Most of them were deported to penitentiary institutions in the Russian Federation“.

According to her, these people are subjected to searches, abductions, torture, fabricated criminal cases – and all this is happening in conditions of complete impunity.

In addition, Refat Chubarov, Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, addressed the audience via video and spoke about the persecution of Crimean Tatars and Russia’s violation of the Helsinki principles through its actions in occupied Crimea.

The Head of the Board of the Crimean Human Rights Group, Olha Skrypnyk, stressed the systematic spread of hate speech by Russian state media, in particular against Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars.

“All the violations and international crimes mentioned by my colleagues are accompanied by propaganda and disinformation campaigns in the Russian media. Since the beginning of the occupation, the Russian media have systematically used hate speech against Crimean Tatars, Ukrainian activists, human rights defenders and journalists – these groups are the most frequent victims of criminal prosecution in fabricated cases,” she stressed.

Olha Skrypnyk noted that with Russia’s full-scale invasion, hate speech in the media has moved to a new level and transformed into direct calls for destruction: “Since 2022, the nature of hate speech has changed – it has transformed into open public calls for committing grave crimes. Russian journalists have refused to even imitate compliance with journalistic standards. Today, the public space is dominated by extreme hate speech and direct calls for destroying Ukraine and its people simply because of their citizenship or connection with Ukraine“.

The Head of the Board of the Crimean Human Rights Group added that after 2022, Russian media actively spread the idea of armed aggression against the European Union and the United States. Through messages about “Satanists who have taken over Europe”, calls to “bomb decision-making centres” and destroy cities that supply weapons to Ukraine, Kremlin propaganda is trying to legitimise potential violence and create an idea of Russia’s so-called “liberation” mission in Europe.

In this context, Skrypnyk stressed the need for an international response to disinformation, as she said there is a direct link between propaganda and the scale of international crimes in Ukraine. She called on the OSCE participating states to cooperate more actively in monitoring disinformation, to support those who oppose it, and to establish a clear definition of “war propaganda” at the international level.

Mariia Sulialina, Head of the Ukrainian human rights organisation Almenda, focused her speech on the issue of children under occupation. She stressed that over the 11 years of occupation, a new generation has grown up in Crimea, which is constantly subjected to political indoctrination and militarisation: “More than 132 thousand children have graduated from school during the years of occupation. They grew up in conditions when their cultural and social rights were severely restricted. More than half a million children still live under constant pressure as Russia tries to completely erase their Ukrainian identity“.

She reminded that Moscow systematically violates the principles of the Helsinki Final Act, in particular, non-interference in internal affairs and respect for human rights. The occupation authorities are changing educational standards, imposing a militarised curriculum, teaching children to shoot, and fostering a hostile attitude towards the West.

Mariia Sulialina also drew attention to the repression of everything related to Ukraine in the educational process: “Before the occupation, 100% of children studied Ukrainian. Now it is only 0.5%. There is no access to Ukrainian history. Russian textbooks promote the theses about the “artificiality” of Ukraine and the “protective mission” of the Russian Federation. New laws in Russia will make it even more difficult to learn native languages in the occupied territories“.

The human rights defender said that children are persecuted even for expressing their Ukrainian identity: “We document cases when a child can be sent to a psychologist or to a centre for ‘countering extremism’ just because of a Ukrainian badge or words of support for Ukraine“.

The discussion was moderated by Joeri Buhrer Tavanier of the Netherlands Helsinki Committee. The event also featured a video message from the Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, Refat Chubarov, and a video about the persecution of women in Crimea.

The participants surmised through the emphasis that in the 21st century, aggression cannot remain unanswered. If the OSCE tools are not able to respond effectively, they must be updated. The principles declared in 1975 must continue to work today to protect dignity, rights and sovereignty.

In addition to the side event, representatives of Ukrainian organisations held a number of bilateral meetings on the margins of the conference with diplomats and officials from Ireland, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States, the Czech Republic, Norway, and the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Jan Bratu.

For information

The Helsinki+50 Conference marks the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, a foundational document for peace, human rights, and security in Europe. The conference participants gathered to assess the current challenges to the Helsinki principles and discuss how to strengthen the rules-based international system in response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.