Check against delivery

Distinguished guests,

After the illegal annexation of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol, the Council of Europe was the first international organisation to issue a condemnation.

We remain steadfast in our support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders.

And we support the full implementation of the Minsk agreements and the Paris summit conclusions that are crucial to ending the military conflict in Donbas.

Our Organisation exists to protect and promote human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

And it is from this perspective that we approach the ongoing crisis.

At our 2019 Helsinki Ministerial Session, our Committee of Ministers affirmed the importance of the Organisation’s unhindered access to every area of Europe:

To ensure that the European Convention on Human Rights is implemented to the benefit of every European.

But this remains impossible in parts of our continent, including Crimea and the City of Sevastopol.

And we need to right that wrong.

In May of this year, the Ministers’ Deputies went further, adopting a specific decision on the human rights situation.

It calls on the Russian Federation to release unlawfully detained and convicted Ukrainian citizens;

To repeal decisions that curtail the Mejlis;

And to co-operate with the Council of Europe’s human rights bodies.

The decision restates the Deputies’ commitment to a peaceful settlement and calls on Russia to end the current occupation.

And it invites me to engage in dialogue with all parties, to secure our Organisation’s unrestricted access to Crimea, and to issue regular reports on the human rights situation.

The implementation of the decision has already begun.

More recently still, our Parliamentary Assembly adopted a resolution on the situation of Crimean Tatars.

It condemns human rights violations, including killings and disappearances.

And it calls for investigations to be conducted, with lawyers allowed to work without hindrance;

For the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly to be respected;

And for an end to the ban on Crimean Tatar media outlets.

The injustice of the current situation burns deep:

And no-one can promise a quick fix.

But the Council of Europe will do its utmost to ensure that Ukrainians can live in the freedom and security provided by human rights, democracy and the rule of law.