30.10.09
According to lawyer from the Media Law Institute, Ihor Rozkladai, this is only the second time to his knowledge that a court has applied Article 171, obstruction of journalists’ professional activities
If the US, Russia and OSCE had sent observers to Andrey’s trial, as the international human rights community appealed to them to do, perhaps the outcome would have been different. It appears that the west has traded away protection of human rights for access to hydrocarbons.”
29.10.09
Environmentalists warn of serious risk to the Dniester Canyon if it does not receive national park status in the nearest future. They consider that it is local officials who are obstructing the establishment of a national park. The latter deny such charges
29.10.09
There are currently at least 800 legal acts holding the “quasi-lawful” (envisaged by a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers, but not by law) stamp restricting access “for official use only”
Specialists point to serious flaws in the new draft law passed as a base due to major areas of non-compliance with norms of European and world legislation in this sphere, as well as the technical impossibility of implementing a number of its provisions
27.10.09
Iryna Senyk, poet, former political prisoner, member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group (UHG), died on 25 October 2009 She was 83
According to Natalia Dulnyeva from Amnesty International in Ukraine, Ukraine is not prepared for fulfilling its duties under the readmission agreement with the EU which comes into force in 2010
26.10.09
It is vital that historians and other scholars demonstrate solidarity and prevent a serious set back to the reinstatement of historical truth and remembrance of the victims of repression in Russia
48 Russian scholars have signed a statement demanding an end to the criminal prosecution against historian Mikhail Suprun and Alexander Dudarev who gave historical researchers access to archival material on victims of repression
A leading opposition activist from Ingushetia has been shot dead in the latest act of violence in Russia’s North Caucasus region. Maksharip Aushev’s car came under fire on a road near Nalchik
23.10.09
The procedure for appointing the management of the National Television Channel (Channel One) constitutes direct political control by the State of television and runs counter to a seminal judgment from the European Court of Human Rights
The Commission on Journalist Ethics has issued a statement in which it strongly criticizes the media outlets that published names, photos and medical documents about alleged victims of sexual abuse.
22.10.09
The Moscow Heritage Department has called the restoration of the Kurskaya Circle Metro Station, together with words glorifying Stalin, “unacceptable” in a letter addressed to the organization “For Human Rights
22.10.09
According to an Accounting Chamber audit, the measures taken by the authorities to eliminate the consequences of the devastating floods in Western Ukraine a year ago have been pitifully inadequate
The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union has issued an open appeal to parliament in which it points to serious flaws in the draft law on legal aid
CVU finds that the majority of participants in the presidential election campaign lack the political will to carry out democratic, transparent and honest elections in adherence to Ukraine’s legislation, international standards and moral and ethical norms
18.10.09
The European Court of Human Rights has drawn attention to two recurring problems - the prolonged non-enforcement of final domestic decisions and the lack of an effective domestic remedy to deal with it.
12.10.09
Hearings are continuing into a worrying inappropriate law suit brought by the closed joint stock company “Yanovskoye” against the organizers of a strike at the factory called because employees had been paid for less than three of the last six months.
08.10.09
The Court has declared unconstitutional the non-payment of pensions to people living permanently abroad
08.10.09
In a rather bizarre resolution, the Cabinet of Ministers has stipulated that Ukrainian should be the general language in schools, even where tuition is in a minority language
06.10.09
The Court finds that “everyone” covers all Ukrainian nationals, foreign nationals and stateless persons who are in Ukraine. The exercising of this right cannot depend on the status of the person and the nature of his or her legal relations with other parties.”
Prominent Lviv academics, historians and public figures stress that this place of remembrance and research about the past must not depend on political factors, ideological orientation or the personal views of people in high-ranking public posts (the appeal is open for signatures)
03.10.09
Marek Edelman was one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and later active in Poland’s democratic movement. A man who saved life and fought for freedom, in free Poland his voice was never silent on important civic matters
