Fighting for human rights and bringing perpetrators to justice in Crimea

Online round table

Moderator:

Nadia McConnell

Nadia McConnell is the Co-Founder and President of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation (USUF). She has previously served as Director of Congressional Relations at the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) and then as Deputy Assistant Administrator of NASA for Congressional Affairs in the Reagan Administration. Since 1991, she has designed and managed over $60 million in programs for democracy development across Ukraine.

Participants:

Olga Skrypnyk

Olha Skrypnyk is Chair of the Board of the Crimea Human Rights Group, a human rights activist from Crimea, is the head of the Crimea Platform Expert Network for the working group "Human rights and international humanitarian law". Skrypnyk’s focus is accountability for the human rights violations and war crimes in the occupied Crimea, including the research on the evidence of incitement to the genocide of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars indigenous people.

Alena Lunova

Alena Lunova is the Advocacy Director of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA, with over 15 years of experience in the human rights sphere. She has a Master of Philosophy and Master of Law degrees and is an internally displaced person from Crimea. Alena previously worked as a Human Rights Officer at the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and headed the legal team of the Charitable Foundation "Vostok-SOS". As the Advocacy Director of ZMINA, she participates in drafting and advocating for draft laws and resolutions defending the rights of people affected by the armed conflict in Ukraine. She is also a member of the Ukraine 5AM Coalition, which documents war crimes and aims to protect victims of armed Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Mariia Kurinna

Mariia Kurinna is a Ukrainian human rights defender, former diplomat, head of international advocacy at Human Rights House Crimea. Kurinna is a researcher with expertise in Japan-Ukraine relations, gender and capacity development for civil society organizations. She has worked as the head of the consular division of the embassy of Ukraine in Japan, Tokyo. Maria has a strong record of international advocacy promoting women's and IDP rights, as well as accountability for war crimes. She has worked as an advocate with various international bodies, including the UN HRC, OHCHR, UN GA, CEDAW, CoE, and European Parliament. Currently, Maria serves as an international human rights advocacy manager at Human Rights House Crimea and advisor at ZMINA Human Rights Centre. Maria is also an alumna of the Swedish Academy for Young Professionals and a UK FCDO Chevening scholar from the University of Essex.

Kateryna Rashevska

Kateryna Rashevska is a legal expert at the Regional Center for Human Rights (RCHR) and a PhD fellow at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. She is a member of the Interdepartmental Commission on International Humanitarian Law in Ukraine, Expert Council in Crimea, and SQDI. Rashevska specializes in protecting vulnerable victims of international crimes, including children, through her work with the ECHR, OSCE, EU, OHCHR, and ICC. Rashevska documented children deportation cases and led RCHR submission of the communication to the ICC on Ukrainian children deportation, advocated for recognition of the issue by the ICC as top-priority.

Mariia Sulialina

Mariia Sulialina is the head of the Center for Civic Education Almenda. The organization's mission is to approach the reintegration of the population of (de)occupied territories and lay the foundations for guarantees of non-repetition. She is a member of the Humanitarian Policy group of the Crimea Platform Expert Network and specializes in the protection of children's rights, with a special focus on the population of the occupied territories of Ukraine.