The second discussion panel within the Parliamentary Summit in Prague was dedicated to the topic ‘Restoring Justice and Guarantees of Non-Repetition of Russian Aggression’. Ukrainian and international experts defined the necessary steps after the liberation of Crimea and the mechanisms of bringing to justice all those guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Tamila Tasheva, Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, shared her vision of steps to reintegrate Crimea into the legal and socio-economic systemм of Ukraine. She noted that many Russian citizens came to Crimea after the occupation came to Crimea after the occupation even though at different levels Ukrainian authorities were making statements about its illegacy of this. She also pointed out that punishing all people in Crimea it’s not the goal, but people who are part of decision-making like top officials in Crimea should be brought to justice. ‘According to international law, collective expulsion or deportation is illegal we will make our decisions on individual matters’, – Mrs Tasheva explained.
The same opinion was shared by Vladyslav Miroshnychenko, analyst at the Ukrainian Helsinki Human. ‘We should emphasize that Ukraine will not apply the same strategy as Russia in 2014, it will align with international law, mass deportation will not happen’, – he added.
Carolyn Edgerton from Canada, who has experience as Trial Attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, noted that Ukraine still needs to do some work in aligning Ukrainian legal system to the international justice system, for example, ratifying Rome Statute is one of those steps. “Don’t give up! The rule of law reform is complex. Emergencies of the war are huge, but this is about changing a legal culture’, – she concluded.
Continuing the topic of what we can do more at the international level, President of the Ukrainian World Congress Paul Grod emphasized the importance of fighting Russian propaganda, which is different depending on the country. In his opinion, the messages that we spread as ukrainians can resonate among the politicians of countries where Russian propaganda is widespread ‘We can certainly counter a lot of this pro-russian propaganda because this pro-russian propaganda is not necessarily anti Ukrainian. It’s just often anti-west or anti or anti anti-American and we all we all know that so our objective is really now to focus on you know, where the key regions where we could be influential as as Global ukrainians and as friends as friends of Ukraine’, – Mr Graud highlighted.
The speakers noted that preparation for de-occupation is a priority area of work of the Crimean Platform, but there are certain problems that cannot wait for the liberation of Crimea. For example, the militarization of children in Crimea and special camps where, in fact, they are being prepared as a future mobilization resource for wars initiated by the Russian Federation.
Head of the Center of civil education ‘Almenda’ Mariia Sulialina drew attention to the problem of militarization of children in Crimea. She noted that solving this problem cannot wait for the deoccupation of Crimea: ‘Only during this three months 170,000 Ukrainian children what militarized oriented in summer camps and this is not only Crimea and children. We’re also talking about children from other occupied territories, like Zaporiszia, Kherson, Donetsk regions. They are preparing kids for not only war in Ukraine, but the other wars’.
Discussion was moderated by David Stulík, Counselor to the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of the Czech Republic and was organised by Crimea Platform Expert Network with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.