today 21.05.2013 21:05
(by Kyiv time) navigation |
|
 |
Human Rights in Ukraine Information website of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group |
 |
 |
 |
Óêðà¿íñüêà | Ðóññêèé | English |
Ukraine’s political rights rating in Freedom House’s 2011 Report declined from 3 to 4 due to the authorities’ efforts to crush the opposition, including the politicized use of the courts, a crackdown on media, and the use of force to break up demonstrations. 
Serhiy Kostakov, who spent seven and a half months in custody from December 2010 charged with blocking the road and damaging a car during the mass peaceful protest against the new Tax Code in November 2010, is presently in a European country where he has asked for asylum 
In the face of clear evidence that the media is being instructed to hype up election-linked “social initiatives” and generally give positive coverage to the President and Prime Minister, the State Broadcasting Committee is actually trying to justify this 
New worrying restrictions on which court rulings the public will get to see and ever more cases of pressure on judges, especially those “daring” to acquit defendants 
The address given by one of the candidates for the post of Human Rights Ombudsperson – Yevhen Zakharov, Co-Chair of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group and Head of the Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union before the vote for Ombudsperson on 15 March. 
A letter has been made public which suggests Ukraine’s leaders may have restarted the tradition under President Kuchma of “temnyky” – instructions from above on the material to be given coverage and how 
Well-known journalist Mustafa Nayem has put forward Stop Censorship’s call to the Parliamentary Committee on Freedom of Speech to ensure that material is clearly labelled as advertising and does not mislead the public 
Concern over the activities of the SBU [Security Service] under its new former KGB boss has been heightened by news in one week of two bursts of activity which seem aimed at intimidation rather than protecting national security 
Yury Lukanov has looked into the explosion in a Zaporizhya Church on 28 July 2010 and the subsequent investigation, arrests and prosecution of three young men. The study is to be welcomed given serious grounds for concern over the case 
Members of the NGO “Nobody but Us” which defends the rights of Afghanistan War veterans assert that the law enforcement officers are trying to arrest the organization’s leader, Oleksand Kovalyov 
The report identifies three danger trends which emerged last year: increased poverty; political persecution of the opposition and civic movements, as well as the destruction of judicial independence 
Deputies of the European Parliament, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and German Parliament are calling on UEFA President Michel Platin to join the international community in its demands to the Ukrainian authorities concerning the persecution of members of the opposition 
It is excellent that Yakiv Strogan has finally been released from custody, albeit on a signed undertaking not to leave, and can now be with his family. It remains as deeply disturbing as ever that the law enforcement bodies and court persist in refusing to investigate serious allegations of torture against police officers 
About a dozen protesters were arrested by the police on March 10 as several thousand pro-democracy demonstrators attended a rally to denounce the March 4 presidential election that was won by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin 
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