Bishkek (AKIpress) – 23 states including Uzbekistan voted against the UN committee’s draft resolution on human rights violation in occupied Crimea, 76 countries abstained from the resolution.

The document entitled “Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine)” was passed with 73 votes for, 23 against and 76 abstentions on November 16.

Among those voted against were Russia’s close allies — China, Belarus, Armenia, and Kazakhstan. Uzbekistan, Iran, India, Syria, South Africa, Serbia and North Korea also rejected the draft resolution.

The document reaffirms the UN’s commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea and urges Russia to immediately end all abuses against the Black Sea territory’s residents, including “arbitrary detentions, torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment, and to revoke all discriminatory legislation.”

The draft resolution condemns abuses and discrimination “against the residents of the temporarily occupied Crimea, including the Crimean Tatars.”

For the first time in the UN documents, Russia is called as “state-occupier” and Crimea and Sevastopol as “temporarily occupied territory”.