Open appeal to the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, calling on him to veto the Law “On the Judicial System and Status of Judges”

On Sunday 27 January 2013 a general meeting was held to form a Public Council attached to the Interior Ministry. This resulted in twenty five of the 35 representatives of civic institutions allowed to the meeting, among them a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union being elected.

Human rights organizations have on many occasions expressed concern regarding the political grounds for the criminal prosecution of former government officials. On 11 October the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv issued its verdict against Yulia Tymoshenko, sentencing her to seven years imprisonment over the signing of gas accords with Russia.

On 13 September 2011 three Kharkiv TV companies – ATN, Fora and ATVC – were simultaneously removed from air. All three are engaged in independent journalist activities and regularly broadcast criticism of the local authorities and various State bodies. The simultaneous silencing under various pretexts of these three TV companies makes it impossible to doubt the political commissioning of the move.

The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union has issued an open letter expressing concern over interference by the Prosecutor General’s Office in the work of the courts. As reported, and from documents which UHHRU has received, it is clear that on 7 June 2011 the Deputy Prosecutor General Mykhailo Havrylyuk, who is at the same time a member of the High Council of Justice, wrote to the High Council of Justice suggesting that it dismiss three judges of the Kyiv Court of Appeal – Ihor Moroz, Valery. Pashkevych and Ludmila Bartashchuk.

The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union has addressed an appeal to Human Rights Ombudsperson, Nina Karpachova and to the heads of deputy factions in the Verkhovna Rada asking her to stand up for the rights of victims of the Chernobyl Disaster, children of the War and pensioners.

Following the 2010 Presidential elections Ukraine’s new leadership began not only carrying out their own policy involving active violation of human rights, but resorted to political persecution of their opponents and critics. This has been widely reported by the media. foreign and Ukrainian experts, in the report by the Danish Helsinki Committee on Human Rights, etc.

The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and Kharkiv Human Rights Group have addressed an open appeal to Volodymyr Lytvyn, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, regarding the draft law introducing amendments to the recently adopted Law on Access to Public Information.

Open Letter from the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and Kharkiv Human Rights Group The newspaper Gazeta po-kievski is a wide circulation socio-political publication. Its staff have always carried out their duties to a high level, unfailingly adhering to journalist standards and gaining deserved loyalty from the broadest readership.

Representatives of a number of law and human rights organizations are demanding the dismissal of the Head of the High Specialized Court on Civil and Criminal Proceedings, L. Fesenko from his post as judge and member of the High Council of Justice due to breach of his oath. The relevant applications have been sent to the President and to the High Council of Justice.

2010 has been marked by an increase in prominent criminal prosecutions for crimes allegedly committed with the use of official position. The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and the Kharkiv Human Rights Group would like to be able to welcome efforts by the authorities to fight corruption, misuse of power and impunity among members of the State apparatus.

As always, to mark International Human Rights Day, the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union announces their Thistle of the Year Anti-Awards for the worst violators of human rights during the year. There were 7 nominations this year: the Minister of Education, Dmytro Tabachnyk; the Minister of Internal Affairs, Anatoly Mohylyov; the Head of the Security Service, Valery Khoroshkovsky; the Mayor of Kharkiv, Hennady Kernes; the Prime Minister Mykola Azarov; the President’s Administration; and Kharkiv judge Serhiy Lazyuk.

An Open letter to Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kostyantyn Ivanovych On 8 December 2010 the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee informed that Ukraine was among 19 countries which had declined their invitation to the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony on 10 December. It would seem that this position was dictated by support for China’s protest against the awarding of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

Human rights violations in Ukraine and pressure on independent media outlets were the main topics of a press conference held on Monday in Brussels by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the Vinnytsa Human Rights Group and the independent television channel TVi.

We, the undersigned organisations, are deeply concerned about the increased repressions of human rights defenders, journalists and academics in Ukraine and call upon the Ukrainian authorities to respect their international human rights obligations.

The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union is disturbed by a sharp increase in unlawful actions against human rights and civic activists. The number of such cases over the last six months is far in excess of the total number of similar incidents during the previous five years.