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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.

At the United Nations, Human Rights House Foundation highlighted the increasing “Russianisation” of Crimea, and the human rights violations as a consequence, and called on the international community to further scrutinise the human rights situation in Crimea. Furthermore, all parties in the on-going conflict in Eastern Ukraine must fulfil their obligations under international human rights law.

Journalist Pavel Sheremet was killed in a car bomb attack in Kyiv on 20 July 2016. His murder follows recent attacks on journalists and a climate in which journalists and media are discredited and in some cases vilified for their work.

The “Bring International Standards Home” (BISH) project celebrated its 10th anniversary with the start of the new academic training cycle for Belarusian human rights defenders in Belarus, from June 3–10 at the Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv. BISH is a project within Human Rights House Foundation’s International Law in Advocacy (ILIA) program.