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Independent media outlet Meydan TV and journalist Anton Naumlyuk won the Fritt Ord Foundation’s Free Media Awards for their contribution to independent information and efforts to shed light on human rights violations in Azerbaijan and Crimea.

In a letter to the President of Ukraine, 31 member and partner NGOs of Human Rights Houses underlined that civil society is an ally for Ukraine’s future, and urged that it should not be targeted by measures impeding its independence.

Now three years since the Russian annexation of Crimea, Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) again raised concerns about the human rights situation on the peninsula at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The persecution of Crimean Tatars and human rights defenders has been expanding to arrests of the human rights lawyers that defend their rights. Crimean Tatar lawyer Emil Kurbedinov and his client Crimean Tatar activist Seyran Saliev, now released, were arrested and detained for 10 days and 12 days respectively.

Some 33 human rights organisations from the Civic Solidarity Platform issued the following joint statement urging the Russian Federation to stop illegal practices against lawyers and human rights defenders, and asking the international community to defend lawyers and human rights defenders in Crimea.

The human rights situation in Crimea will now be examined by the international community gathered in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

The House was bought in January 2014, in the middle of the Euromaidan protests and just ahead of restrictive laws being adopted on freedom of assembly and association. Still, amid this chaos, the founders established the House that year, and included organisations from across Ukraine.

HRHF is appalled by the human rights situation in Crimea, and by the constant harassment and persecution of journalists and human rights defenders. Crimea is currently on the agenda at the UN Human Rights Council and the General Assembly. This attention is welcome, but it must translate into action.

Three Ukrainian human rights NGOs and the Human Rights House Foundation call on the UN General Assembly to address the human rights situation in Crimea, which has seriously deteriorated since Russia annexed the peninsula in March 2014.