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The occupation authorities of the annexed Crimea threaten Ukraine with international tribunals due to the water blockade of the peninsula. Kiev’s actions to block the Northern Crimean Canal (SKK), according to Russian protégés, allegedly violate the rights of Crimeans and are therefore intended to apply for protection of their rights at the UN.
Boris Babin, a legal scholar, former Permanent Representative of Ukraine in Crimea, spoke about the legal position of the occupiers and the prospects of considering the “claim” in a comment to “Apostrophe”.
As it became known, the head of the group of legal experts of the “government” in annexed Crimea, Alexander Molokhov, plans to file an international lawsuit on behalf of the Crimean Industrial Fish Harvester located in the Krasnoperekopsky district.
Until 2014, the company was engaged in fish farming in freshwater tanks, which were filled by the SCC. According to the occupation “authorities”, after the Ukrainian government cut off the water supply in response to the annexation of the peninsula, all the company’s fish were killed. Work on the plant was halted and its owners reportedly suffered multi-million dollar losses.
From 2017 to 2018, lawyers for the occupiers appealed to Ukraine’s economic courts with claims against the State Water Resources Agency of Ukraine and the CCC Office, but their requests were rejected. Alexander Molokhov and his “legal team” simply did not pay court fees. Having received a refusal from the Ukrainian Themis, the representatives of the fish factory approached the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) with claims against the state structures of Ukraine. In the summer of this year, the ECHR rejected the claims of the Russian lawyers and did not consider their claim against Ukraine.
“The occupation “claim” was originally false. They appealed to the economic court, but did not pay the court fee, as they were not interested in conducting the trial itself. In fact, in this case, the total legal inconsistency of their position would be revealed. The invaders needed a “lawsuit” in the Ukrainian court “to show themselves” and then have a formal basis for filing an application at the ECHR, but even there they were expected to fail. After the Russians began to replicate stories about a supposedly “biased” judge from Azerbaijan, who studied in Kiev“, – said Boris Babin.
According to Babin, the Crimean “authorities” threaten international courts solely for propaganda and public relations purposes.
According to Molokhov’s statements, after the ECHR, the Crimean plant’s lawyers intend to try their luck in the United Nations structures. They intend to lodge a complaint about the blockage of the canal leading from the Dnieper to the UN Human Rights Committee, and the second to the UN Human Rights Council. From the point of view of decision-making mechanisms in the UN, the first complaint does not threaten Ukraine, since the decisions of the Human Rights Committee are of an advisory nature. The situation with the procedures within the Human Rights Council is more complicated, because the decisions of this body can be taken into account in the meetings of the UN General Assembly.
“However, the claims of the occupants have no legal basis“, – Summarized Babin.
For more details on the situation in Crimea annexed with water and the claims of the invaders to Ukraine, read the “Apostrophe” material: “And again water to Crimea: Russia has created a new legal vacuum to put pressure on Ukraine”.
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