01 July 2021, Thursday, 19:02 203

Rada Adopts Bill Defining ‘Indigenous People’ Concept, Confirming Crimean Tatars, Karaites, And Krymchaks As ‘Indigenous Peoples’

Редактор: Daria Zubkova

The parliament has adopted a bill defining the concept of "indigenous people" and legally stipulating that Crimean Tatars, Karaites, and Krymchaks are "indigenous peoples" of Ukraine.

Bill No. 5506 was adopted by 325 votes, with only 226 required, the Ukrainian News Agency reports.

According to the bill, an "indigenous people" of Ukraine is an autochthonous ethnic community that is native to Ukraine, has a distinctive language and culture, has traditional social, cultural, or representative bodies, has a self-awareness of itself as an indigenous people, is an ethnic minority population, and does not have its own state outside the country.

"Crimean Tatars, Karaites, and Krymchaks are indigenous peoples of Ukraine, who are native to the Crimean peninsula," the document states.

The bill guarantees the cultural, educational, linguistic, and informational rights of Ukraine’s indigenous peoples, as well as their rights to sustainable development.

The document also guarantees the rights of Ukraine’s indigenous peoples to legal protection from any actions aimed at depriving them of their ethnicity, assimilation, forced resettlement, and discrimination, among other things.

According to the bill, indigenous peoples also have the right to determine their national symbols and the procedure for its use within the framework of the Ukrainian legislation, in particular, they have the right to create their own educational institutions in which they can study their languages, history, and culture.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on May 9 that Ukraine should put an end to the issue of legislative definition of the status of Crimean Tatars people as an indigenous people.

Zelenskyy announced on May 18 that he was submitting a bill on indigenous peoples to the parliament for urgent consideration.