The Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine (VASU) has found that the materials of the case of police inaction during the beating of activists in the Park named after M. Horkyi contain no evidence of lawful actions of policemen.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Ukraine finally restored justice in the case of Olexiy Vyerentsov and ruled that the police and courts violated his right to freedom of peaceful assembly. However, it took three years and a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights to do so.

Ukrainian courts satisfied almost all motions of Ukrainian authorities to ban peaceful assemblies. According to human rights activists, courts prohibited 60 out of 64 applications for peaceful assemblies. In 39 cases, courts prohibited peaceful rallies in support of European integration, while in 7 cases courts prohibited rallies in support of the Customs Union (or in support of state authorities), in other cases courts prohibited counter-rallies.

On January 9, 2014, Andriy Kayuda, a Judge at the Luhansk Administrative Court, finished hearing the case involving a lawsuit by Kostyantyn Reutskiy, Chairman of the Human Rights Center ‘Postup’, against Oblast State Administration, City Council, Oblast and City Departments of Education, in which the Luhansk Oblast and City Organizations of the Party of Regions were among the defendants.

The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union is appalled by the cynical and senseless violence demonstrated during the unlawful dispersing of the peaceful protest on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv and other acts of violence throughout the country.

The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (UHHRU) starts to gather information on violations of the right to peaceful assembly across Ukraine. Please, inform us about all court rulings that prohibit or limit peaceful assemblies and cases of physical violence by police against civic activists. Please, send your information to office @ helsinki.org.ua or leave it on the UHHRU Facebook page.

Seven years ago the Orange Revolution erupted. History of the events already resembles a folk tale. Some adamantly believe that the Revolution was a set-up, that there was a price for going out to protest and that the poisoning of Viktor Yanukovich was a media stunt. I know others who wholeheartedly believed in change and went to the protests every day, engaged in discussion or, like my hairdresser, simply brought fried chicken legs for their politically active offspring.

On 13 June the District Administrative Court in Kyiv banned all Ukrainian citizens without exception from holding protests on Bankova and Lutheranska Street. The ban was imposed for 7 months. The Interior Minister considers that protests could arouse “discontent among ordinary citizens and residents of adjacent buildings. Going by the resolution one can assume that the judge was intimidated.

The Partnership “For Freedom of Peaceful Assembly” points out that information provided by the Deputy Interior Minister Viktor Ratushnyak regarding a ban on wearing masks in the draft bill on freedom of peaceful assembly is not correct. In the draft law prepared by human rights groups and put forward for MPs to table, there is no such ban. The circulation of such information from the police indicates the intention to supplement the draft law with amendments which violate human rights.

In an appeal addressed to the heads of parliamentary groups and factions, and MPs, a number of representatives of human rights organizations stress that “freedom of peaceful assembly is one of the cornerstones of democratic society. The possibility for each person to directly and freely put forward their position ensures pluralism and is a necessary component of the open society which we want Ukraine to be.

At a time when fundamental freedom of peaceful assembly is coming under increasing assault in Ukraine, solidarity among representatives of civic society is especially vital. Solidarity does not by any means exclude pluralism of views. Recent statements from one quarter have forced the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union to issue a statement making this clear.

On 11 April 2013 the European Court of Human Rights judgment was issued in the case of Vyerentsov v. Ukraine. The Court called on the Ukrainian authorities to pass a law without delay regulating procedure for notifying of plans to hold a meeting; stipulating the motives and procedure for the authorities’ actions in restricting such a right.

The European Court of Human Rights noted that the Vyerentsov case “disclosed a structural problem, namely a legislative lacuna concerning freedom of assembly which has remained in Ukraine since the end of the Soviet Union.

The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union informs that on 9 April the European Court of Human Rights will be publishing its judgement in the case of Verentsov v. Ukraine. This could radically change judicial practice in Ukraine with respect to peaceful assembly and make life easier for Ukrainian picketers.

25 January 2020. Due to failure by civic organizations to agree their position the Law on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly did not get adopted. About 95% of all rallies, pickets, demonstrations are banned.