Civic organizations in the Luhansk region say that all the founders of new trade unions in their region have been subjected to harassment by their employers. This is reflected for example in threats, unwarranted disciplinary penalties or dismissals.

This was the question representatives of various civic organizations tried to answer at a press conference called in connection with recent proposals from the main party in power 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).

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. They analyzed court rulings in the Single State Register of Court Rulings in cases on restriction of the right to peaceful assembly over the last two years in order to establish how this constitutionally enshrined right was being protected. The results staggered them.

Numerous violations took place throughout the year, with law enforcement bodies offering very little assistance. The Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine suffered judicial persecution. The right to strike is limited, and collective bargaining is not adequately secured.

In an article about the trials and tribulations of civic organizations in Ukraine, Tetyana Yatskiv, Head of the Legal Support Programme for Civic Organizations “Community Centre”, notes that for all the apparent movement with legislative acts passed, revoked, lobbied for, there is a sense that nothing is moving forward.

The Vinnytsa Human Rights Group has reported a bizarre and disturbing visit from an officer of the Central Department for Fighting Organized Crime [UBOZ] in the Vinnytsa region. The officer informed the Head of VHG, Dmytro Groisman, that UBOZ had received instructions from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to check the lawfulness of the group’s activities, including their circulation of statements which could harm Ukraine’s international image.

A number of prominent Ukrainian civic organizations have addressed an open letter to Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. They point out non-fulfilment of paragraph one of the Government’s Programme regarding adoption of a new version of the Law “On citizens’ associations” and the blocking of this process by deputies from the BYUT faction [the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko].

On 22 September 2009 the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy refused to give any consideration at all to the draft law “On civic organizations” (registration No. 3371, from 14.11.2008). This was announced by the Head of the Committee Serhiy Mishchenko (BYuT – Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko). It is worth noting that the draft law in question was prepared and submitted to the Verkhovna Rada under the premiership of Yulia Tymoshenko in implementation of Item 1.1 of the Action Plan for the Cabinet of Ministers [CMU] “Ukrainian breakthrough: for people, not politicians”, approved by CMU Resolution No. 14 from 16 January 2008.

On the events of 17 October around the Institute “Respublica”

In an important judgment on 3 April in the case of Koretskyy and others v. Ukraine, the European Court of Human Rights found that Ukraine had violated Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights over the refusal of a department of the Ministry of Justice to register the association “Civic Committee for the Preservation of Wild (Indigenous) Natural Areas in Bereznyaky”.

The Eurasian Youth Union raised its ugly head in Ukraine on Friday, with the desecration of Ukrainian State emblems on Mount Hoverli in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. After photographing their “heroic deeds” on their mobile, the three culprits sped out of the country in the direction of Russia.