Opening Remarks:

Mr. Andriy Shevchenko, Ambassador of Ukraine to Canada

Chair: Professor Victor Ostapchuk (Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto)

Speakers:

Professor Paul Robert Magocsi (the John Yaremko Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Toronto): Crimea and Crimean Tatars: the Historical Context

Mr. Akhtem Chyigoz (Deputy Chairman of the Milli Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People): Struggle of the Crimean Tatar people and other citizens of Ukraine for their Motherland and territorial integrity of Ukraine in the time of military occupation by the Russian Federation

Professor John Packer (Neuberger-Jesin Professor of International Conflict Resolution in the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa): State Responsibility for Human Rights in Crimea

BIOS OF PARTICIPANTS

Paul Robert Magocsi is professor of history and political science at the University of Toronto, where since 1980 he also holds the John Yaremko Chair of Ukrainian Studies. He completed his education at Rutgers University (B.A. 1966; M.A. 1967), Princeton University (M.A. 1969; Ph.D. 1972), and Harvard University (Society of Fellows 1976). He is a member of the Harvard University Society of Fellows (1976). Professor Magocsi has taught at Harvard University, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Prešov University in Slovakia, and on five occasions was historian-in-residence at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany. In 1996 he was appointed a permanent fellow of the Royal Society of Canada—Canadian Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Prešov University in Slovakia (doctor honoris causa, 2013) and from Kamianets-Podilskyi National University in Ukraine (pochesnyi profesor, 2015). Interested in the history of nationalism, in particular among ethnic groups living in border areas. Has published in the fields of history, sociolinguistics, bibliography, cartography and immigration studies.

Chiygoz Akhtem Seytullayovych is Deputy Chairman of the Milli Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People. His work experience in the Mejlis started from the position of Chairman of the local Mejlis of the Tenistoye village of Bakhchisarai district. Since his election in 2002, during 16 years he governed the Bakhchisarai regional Mejlis, one of the most active regulatory body of self-government of the Crimean Tatars in Crimea. In 2008, Chiygoz was elected as a Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People. After the deportation of Mustafa Dzhemilev and Refat Chubarov, during the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, A. Chiygoz took an active pro-Ukrainian position among the Crimean Tatars and citizens of Ukraine of other nationalities in Crimea. On January 29, 2015, he was arrested and until 26.10.2017 was kept in Investigation Isolator of the Simferopol city (AR of Crimea) on a charge of violating Part 1. Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Organization of Mass Riots”. A.Chiygoz was charged with so-called organization of mass riots at a rally on February 26, 2014 in Simferopol, which in a fact was held to support the territorial integrity of Ukraine and to prevent the adoption of a separatistic decision by the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea. On September 11, 2017, the Kremlin-controlled Supreme Court of Crimea sentenced him to eight years of imprisonment. The international human rights organization “AmnestyInternational” awarded Akhtem Chiygoz the status of a political prisoner, as well as the status of a “Prisoner of conscience.”

John Packer is Neuberger-Jesin Professor of International Conflict Resolution in the Faculty of Law and Director of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre at the University of Ottawa. He previously taught at the Fletcher School (Tufts University) and the University of Essex, held Fellowships at Cambridge and Harvard Universities, and has lectured at academic and professional institutions around the world. Over his 30-year career, he was an inter-governmental official for 20 years (UNHCR, ILO, OHCHR, UNDPA, OSCE) and has advised numerous governments, communities and other actors in over fifty countries. Before coming to the University of Ottawa in 2014, he was the Constitutions Expert on the UN’s Standby Team of Mediation Experts. The focus of his research and practice is at the inter-section of human rights (including minority rights) and security, notably conflict prevention and quiet diplomacy, international mediation, transitional arrangements, and institutional developments at domestic and multilateral levels. From 1995-2004 Professor Packer was Senior Legal Adviser then first Director in the Office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe during which he was actively engaged with Ukraine including Crimea. A specific focus of his work was negotiation and adoption of elements of the 1996 Constitution of Ukraine and of the 1998 Constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea including specific accommodations for the Crimean Tatars; he also assisted in negotiating arrangements for the facilitated return of Crimean Tatars to their homeland and conferral of Ukrainian nationality.