Human rights activists urge to change rules of entry to Crimea

Human rights activists urge to change the new rules of entry to Crimea, which were introduced by the resolution of June 4 this year. In their view, the new rules violate the right to freedom of movement, the Human Rights Information Centre correspondent reports.

Lawyer of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Darya Svyrydova says that the procedure for entry into the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, which was adopted by the government, contains “a violation of the law and the state interference into the freedom of movement of its citizens and foreigners who legally stay in Ukraine.”

Head of the Human Rights Information Centre Tetiana Pechonchyk notes that the foreign journalists, human rights activists and lawyers will not be able to work in Crimea now.

 “If Ukraine cannot protect the rights of its citizens in Crimea, why it does not allow others to do this? Human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists are ready, often risking their own safety, to go to Crimea and to record the violations of human rights,” she said.

 Due to the new rules, the Crimean Field Mission on Human Rights, the only international monitoring mission which has been constantly working in Crimea since March of 2014, had to cancel its visit to hold field work to document human rights violations in July.

 The human rights activists reported that they were forced to lodge a relevant lawsuit with the court.