Mr. Speaker, this week I had the honour of speaking at an event hosted with the Munk School of Global Affairs, in Toronto, highlighting the desperate plight of Crimean Tatars in Russian-occupied Ukraine. This event featured a presentation by Crimean Tatar leader Mr. Mustafa Dzhemilev as well as a number of academics. I would like to salute the courageous advocacy of the Crimean Tatar community, as well as the Ukrainian community and the Ukrainian government, which have stood with it. The Embassy of Ukraine in Canada co-hosted this event.
Ukraine provides a home to people from a range of different cultural backgrounds. The Kremlin, by contrast, imposes its brutal will on all those within its empire.
The ongoing abuse of Crimean Tatars is one of many under-discussed human rights issues highlighting the brokenness of our international system. Powerful autocrats like Putin undertake human rights abuses themselves and defend abuses by smaller client states. There is no effective enforcement of international human rights. If anything, capacity for enforcement is declining.
For the sake of Crimean Tatars, other Ukrainians in occupied areas, and all other victims around the world, we must face up to the brokenness of our international system and do more to fix it.