today 20.05.2013 03:17
(by Kyiv time) navigation |
|
 |
Human Rights in Ukraine Information website of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group |
 |
 |
 |
Óêðà¿íñüêà | Ðóññêèé | English |
Two years after adoption of the Public Information Act, Roman Kabachiy from the Institute of Mass Information writes that officials either don’t know their duties or know them enough to write formal fob-off responses. There remain also areas of great importance which the public are prevented from knowing about. 
On Tuesday Ukraine’s parliament adopted a law on implementing State anti-corruption policy, and rejected two draft bills aimed at strengthening that same anti-corruption policy 
During 2012 the President’s Administration paid 100 thousand UAH to Tantalit - a firm believed to have links with the Yanukovych family - for renting an office for Viktor Yanukovych in the latter’s sumptuous residence at Mezhyhirya. 
Oleksy Khmara from Transparency International in Ukraine believes the President’s "royalties" for non-existent publicaitons, as well as the entire business of Yanukovych’s elder son may be about trying to legalize income 
The Verkhovna Rada has refused to publish information about the officials working for the Office of the VRU and indicate how much they earn, claiming that this is internal organizational information 
Mega-earnings in royalties for a second year running with not a word published and from a printing firm not known for publishing books - everything ripe, you’d think, for a grandiose scandal and some very hard-hitting questions. Not, however, in Ukraine. 
Well-known journalist Serhiy Leshchenko’s appeal was lodged after the first instance court upheld the Constituitonal Court’s refusal to show the submission claiming that it contained official information and personal data 
The Head of Ukraine’s State Archive, Olha Ginzburg from the Communist Party continues to assert that Ukraine’s archives are the most open in the world and still maintains her position that they should be much more restricted. 
The Regional Press Development Institute has reported two cases where the court has allowed legal suits against refusals by the authorities to provide information 
Olexander Afronin, President of the Ukrainian Publishers and Booksellers Association has never heard of royalties (like the President’s 15 and a half million UAH) for books which have not been written where there isn’t even a plan for it 
The largest amount in President Yanukovych’s income declaration, as in the previous year, is supposed to be 15 and a half million UAH in royalties according to an agreement signed in 2011. 
Not only are the Roma being used to nominally fulfil EU requirements needed for visa liberalization, but the “Strategy” supposed to fulfil these is being treated as classified information. 
OPORA has drawn attention to the questionable situation where public funding is allocated to pay MPs substantial amounts for “assistants”, yet the public and media are refused information about who these assistants are 
A judgement just issued by Russia’s Constitutional Court concerns access to most archival documents of public importance which were classified as secret over 30 years ago 
The European Court of Human Rights’ assessment must be sought since all Ukrainian court instances have denied the apparently irrefutable right of a Ukrainian journalist and citizen to know how much the President paid for a State-owned piece of land within Mezhyhirya. 
Ukrainians still have restricted access to city plans. While this may not seem like scintillating reading, such access would make it possible to identify – perhaps even prevent – all kinds of corrupt dealings. 
Exactly 2 months have passed since Volodymyr Honcharenko, a prominent environmentalist from Dnipropetrovsk, was fatally injured in a brutal attack. . 
"The fact that such a directive appeared without public discussion and without, let’s be open about it, an overt terrorist threat for Ukraine, makes one wary" 
The website is created with assistance of the International Renaissance Foundation and National Endowment for Democracy (USA)
For using of materials from the site, reference to the information source is obligatory