OREANDA-NEWS The third Committee of the UN General Assembly, responsible for social, humanitarian and cultural issues, for the third year in a row adopts a resolution on human rights violations in Crimea.

This year, the number of countries that voted in favor was 67, against-26, abstaining was more-82. Two previous times in 2016 and 2017, 70 States voted for the resolution, 26 voted against in both years, and 77 and 76 countries abstained respectively. Among those who support the initiative, traditionally the majority of European countries and the United States.

Sponsors of the draft resolution: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Marshall Islands, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom of great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America and Ukraine.

At the same time, in 2017, the Presidium of the Crimean Parliament appealed to the GA with a proposal to visit the Crimea and to give an objective assessment of the human rights situation in the region.

The text of the resolution, sponsored by Ukraine, reiterates that in Crimea there is "increased pressure on religious minority communities, including in the form of frequent police raids, threats and persecution against adherents of The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, the Protestant Church, mosques and Muslim religious educational institutions, Greek Catholics, Roman Catholics and Jehovah's witnesses "*and condemning also the groundless persecution of dozens of peaceful Muslims for their alleged membership in Islamic organizations".