Oleksandr Sych: Ukraine should urgently support the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

"The fate and the future of Crimea cannot be determined without and beyond the choice of the Crimean Tatars as one of the indigenous people of Ukraine”, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Sych said on March 17 at a meeting in connection with the appeal of the Majlis of the Crimean Tatar People to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and to the Ukrainian people.

The Deputy Prime Minister stressed the need for immediate joining of Ukraine to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as one of the first steps of settling the problem. "Joining to the Declaration and determining the status of Crimean Tatar people as an indigenous people of Crimea will not only strengthen international guarantees in order to protect their natural right, but also strengthen the Ukrainian sovereignty on the peninsula," said Oleksandr Sych .

Following the meeting the Deputy Prime Minister instructed to prepare a draft statement of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to support the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and submit it to the Government on 19 March, 2014. "In terms of actual occupation of the peninsula we have neither the right nor the time to delay. The right to decide in which country to live belongs exclusively to Crimean Tatars, who officially confirmed their recognition of Ukraine as a sovereign and independent state within its existing borders", Oleksandr Sych emphasized.