The European Court of Justice began consideration of cases on the ban of the Mejlis

On October 20, the European Court of Human Rights began official communication in cases related to the ban on the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. This ban was introduced by the Russian occupation authorities of Crimea in 2016.

This was reported by the Crimean Tatar Resource Center.

Both the representative bodies of the Crimean Tatars and individual citizens appealed to the Court. Eskender Bariiev, the Head of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center and a member of the Mejlis, noted that 17 individual applications with the assistance of the CTRC, as well as a separate application from the Mejlis itself, were filed in 2017.

Bariev explained that such a long wait was due to the position of the ECHR. The court decided to consider individual cases only after the judgment in the interstate case "Ukraine v. Russia" on Crimea, which was announced in June last year.

According to Bariiev, the purpose of the complaints filed is much broader than lifting the ban on one organization: the applicants seek international recognition of the systemic pressure on the indigenous Crimean Tatar people. He emphasized that the ban on the Mejlis is part of the Kremlin's 'genocidal policy' and a deliberate attempt to destroy the system of national self-government.

Lawyer Borys Babin, who represents the applicants in the Court, noted the legal complexity of the case. It concerns the determination of the applicants' status in the context of indigenous peoples' rights, which is a rare precedent in the ECHR case law.

Babin paid special attention to the cases of local mejlises in Kherson region. Back in 2017, they appealed to the European Court, pointing to the risks of future Russian aggression against mainland Ukraine and the predicted oppression of Crimean Tatars, which, unfortunately, was confirmed after 2022.

Against the backdrop of the beginning of communication, in the summer of 2025, the CTRC submitted additional materials to the ECtHR, which testify to the continued persecution of members of local mejlises in Kherson region: some of them are in prison, others were forced to leave, and those who remained are under constant control of the occupiers.

Катерина Глушко