A study presented by the Dnipro Social Research Centre reports a deterioration in the human rights situation in the Dnipropetrovsk region
16.06.11
Serhiy Kostakov is accused of having damaged a car during the peaceful protest against the Tax Code in late November 2010O. The proof for such an offence is widely considered to be questionable, while the grounds for his remand in custody are quite unfathomable
08.06.11
Considering that a peaceful gathering timed to coincide with Journalist Day and intended to remind the President of a promise made on television a full year earlier and not kept, was banned by the court, the events were surely of public importance.
One year after Yanukovych’s promise to show journalists his reportedly sumptuous residence Mezhyhirya came to nothing, a peaceful protest near Mezhyhirya had been planned. On Saturday, the Village Head of Novi Petrivtsi obligingly for a court ban. The court proved equally obliging
The Khmelnytski City-District Court has convicted four Tax Code protesters of hooligan actions over a protest during which demonstrators damaged the doors of the Regional State Administration building
A march in protest at political repression, organized by the right-wing Svoboda [Freedom].Party took place in Lviv on 29 May
The European Neighbourhood Policy Country Report 2010 on Ukraine notes that “fundamental freedoms such as the freedom of the media and assembly and democratic standards appear to have deteriorated” and notes that the local elections were widely criticized by most independent experts
Over 200 organizations and trade unions supported Thursday’s protest action “Vpered!” [“Forward] outside parliament. Small and medium business owners say that the actions of the authorities are depriving them of their work and that they have no option but to protest
20.05.11
The Pechersky District Court in Kyiv has fined the organizer of last Saturday’s protest entitled Day of Rage, Oleksandr Danylyuk for "infringements of the rules on peaceful assembly"
The Union of Transport Firms and Union of Drivers are calling on the traffic police to not obstruct the movement of people taking part in the 19 May protest amd on the media to ensure objective coverage of all preparations for it
The police claim that the protest in Kyiv outside the Verkhovna Rada which was entitled “Day of Rage” and supposed to be indefinite was banned by the court. The protest organizers assert that Ukrainians have the right to peaceful protest.
12.05.11
This was the key question at a press conference called in connection with recent proposals from the Party of the Regions to ban financing of NGOs from abroad, as well as with the possible consideration by parliament on 12 May of the draft Law on Civic Organizations (No. 7262-1).
The criminal case involving charges against six people who allegedly “damaged” the granite on Independence Square during the peaceful protests against the draft Tax Code late last year has been sent back to the Kyiv Prosecutor’s Office to remove infringements during the investigation
On 27 April , the anniversary of the contentious Kharkiv Accords and the day that Freedom House published a report sounding the alarm over the decline of democracy under President Yanukovych, there were reports that people were prevented from attending peaceful demonstrations
22.04.11
Member of the Foundation for Regional Initiatives, Maxim Kytsiuk was with force but no explanation pushed into a police car during a protest outside the President’s Administration. The other activists blocked the car, and within half an hour they managed to obtain Maxim’s release
The Pechersky District Court in Kyiv has rejected an application to release Tax Code protester, Serhiy Kostyakov, under Deputy guarantee, and say this demonstrates the politically motivated nature of the prosecution
11.04.11
In a recent interview, lawyer for the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, Oleh Levytsky spoke of the most shocking case in his experience, the first prosecutions in independent Ukraine of those defending their constitutional right to freedom of assembly
Those accused of damaging the granite stone during the Tax Code protest on Maidan Nezalezhnosti say they were not informed the case had been sent to court and believe the unseemly haste indicates that even the verdict has been prepared in advance
The Investigator, who cites pressure from above, would seem to have no time for such “empty formalities” as allowing the accused to see the file material of this highly questionable criminal investigation in the presence of his lawyer
05.04.11 | R. Kuybida, M. Sereda
In their article, the authors note that last year human rights groups pointed to a serious increase in cases where the authorities interfered in the right of freedom of peaceful assembly. Their analysis of such trends provides disturbing reading
