Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry responds strongly to Putin’s criticism of Indigenous Peoples bill — UNIAN

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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to guarantee the rights of national minorities and indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation and not to manipulate Ukrainian legislative initiatives.

This is according to comments Kuleba made to UNIAN.

The minister noted that the draft law on indigenous peoples submitted to Parliament by President Zelensky is fully in line with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and relevant constitutional norms.

In response, the foreign minister said the bill had “nothing in common with Vladimir Putin’s arbitrary interpretation.”

“The term ‘indigenous peoples’ is well-recognized in international law, in particular the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The bill proposed by the president embodies the main norms of international law in national legislation. It stipulates which peoples should be considered indigenous peoples: these are distinct ethnic groups formed on the territory of Ukraine, who are national minorities and do not have their own state,” Kuleba said.

The minister recalled that in Ukraine these nationalities are first and foremost the Crimean Tatars, Karaims and Kremchaks.

“The Constitution of Ukraine directly and unequivocally guarantees equality for all citizens of Ukraine, regardless of ethnicity, and separately establishes the state’s obligation to protect indigenous peoples and national minorities. Therefore, statements that the adoption of the proposed law on indigenous peoples will lead to oppression do not correspond to reality,” the minister said.

Kuleba also stressed that the rights of the Russian minority have never been suppressed in Ukraine, and that protecting and supporting Ukrainian as the state language is a normal procedure. In addition, protecting the right of Ukrainians to communicate in Ukrainian does not, in essence, pose a threat to other languages.

“At the same time, the facts of the oppression of national minorities and indigenous peoples in Russia are also well known. In particular, the policy of repression against social organizations of Ukrainians in the Russian Federation continues. In 2010, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation abolished the national and cultural autonomy of Ukrainians in the Russian Federation. In May 2012, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dissolved the Association of Ukrainians in Russia and removed it from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. In 2017, the Moscow authorities dissolved the Ukrainian Document Library. In July 2019, the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation recognized the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) as an ‘undesirable organization’ in the Russian Federation,” recalled Kuleba.

READ ALSORussia’s State Duma expresses displeasure over Zelensky’s bill on indigenous peoples – mediaThe foreign minister said Ukraine strongly protested the crackdown.

In addition, the minister said that Russia continues to implement a repressive policy against the Crimean Tatars, an indigenous ethnic group of Ukraine, in the temporarily occupied Crimea region. Russia also ignores the request of the International Court of Justice of the United Nations to lift the ban on the Crimean Tatar Parliament, continues to hold shameful trials against Crimean Tatars, and violates the rights of Crimean Tatars in every possible way, especially the right to education.

The minister said he called on the international community to increase political and diplomatic pressure on Russia to force the Russian government to respect basic human rights and the rights of minorities.

“The Russian leadership should be concerned with safeguarding the rights of national minorities and indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation, and not manipulating Ukrainian legislative initiatives that are fully in line with international law. Our state conscientiously fulfills all obligations in the field of protecting national minorities and indigenous peoples,” Kuleba stressed.

The Ukrainian authorities and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintain continuous interaction with the United Nations, OSCE and the Council of Europe in accordance with Ukraine’s international legal obligations, in particular the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Social Charter, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Social, Cultural and Economic Rights.

READ ALSOCrimean Tatar genocide: Ukraine mourns the victimsAccording to UNIAN’s previous report, on May 18, Zelensky Submitted Urgent submission of the draft law “On the indigenous peoples of Ukraine” (No. 5506) to the Verkhovna Rada.

“The document defines the rights of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine and features of their implementation in order to contribute to the consolidation and development of the Ukrainian nation, as well as the development of the national, cultural, linguistic and religious identity of these peoples,” the presidential office reported.

On June 8, the Russian State Duma reacted to Zelensky’s proposal to adopt the Law on Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine. In response, the State Duma issued a statement saying that the Russian Federation condemned it because the document did not mention Russians.

On June 9, Putin criticized the legislative initiative on Russian television, comparing it to ideas promoted by Nazi Germany.

“In general, the division of nationalities into indigenous, first-class and second-class peoples already resembles the theory and practice of Nazi Germany quite accurately. What about mixed-race people? Zelensky himself is of Jewish origin, and he probably has mixed-race people there. What about these people? Do they measure their skulls and other body parts as they did in Nazi Germany? Is the way they divide real Arians also the way they divide real Ukrainians?” Putin said.