The Indigenous Status in Ukraine

Though the Ukrainian state has not been practising sovereign rights since 2014, the repeated and emphatic assertions of the rights of Crimean Tatars to self-determination have always been present. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a Resolution “On Statement of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine guarantees of the rights of the Crimean Tatar people as a part of the State of Ukraine” (2014). According to the resolution, the right of the Tatar people to self-determination shall be granted and protected within the sovereign and independent Ukrainian state, as Ukraine recognizes the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Resolution proposes that: „The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine instructs the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to urgently submit draft laws of Ukraine and regulatory legal acts of Ukraine determining and confirming the status of the Crimean Tatar people as indigenous people of Ukraine.” However, no such document–not even a draft–was submitted before the end of 2017. After the Russian annexation of the Crimea, the national assertion of Crimean Tatars has become more and more virtual in Ukraine.