Напрямок: USAID Human Rights in Action Program

A five-year program (from 2017 to 2022) supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented in Ukraine by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union.

The American people, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), have provided economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for 50 years. In Ukraine, USAID’s assistance focuses on three areas: Health and Social Transition, Economic Growth and Democracy and Governance. USAID has provided 1.8 bln technical and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine since 1992.

For additional information about USAID programs in Ukraine, please visit our website or our Facebook page.

Russian military holding 300 Ukrainians hostage from the Kyiv region

The Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR) continues to monitor the situation in the newly occupied territories of Ukraine by Russian troops. The largest response comes from the Kyiv region. There in hostages hold about 300 people in inhuman conditions. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military won back the city of Trostyanets in the Sumy region. The inhabitants came to the connection to tell how they had survived the occupation. More on this in this digest.

5 locations where residents from Kyiv region are being held as hostages

 

Hundreds of residents of the occupied settlements of Kozarovychi, Dymer and Katyuzhanka in Vyshgorod Rayon, Kyiv Oblast, are held hostage blindfolded and forced to dig trenches, as reported by their relatives and eyewitnesses. The most common pretext for detentions (mostly of men) is information found on people’s phones: photos, videos and posts on social networks that the Russians deem suspicious.

«First they (Russian soldiers — editor’s note) checked my younger son. He had a photo of a fire on his phone. They were all over him, threatening him with guns. They stripped him down and started looking for any markings that could indicate that he was in the military. Then it was my eldest’s turn — they switched their attention to him. They found a photo of a dam on his phone. My son explained that he works there, but they still took him away,» says Olena, resident of Kozarovychi. Talking to the locals, Russian troops have said that they are holding people for exchanges.

People found to have relatives abroad would also be detained. «An acquaintance of mine has been in contact with his brother in the United States, and they detained him for a week because they thought he was an American agent,» says Yevhen. The Russians were also detaining men to use them as workforce for fortifying their positions.

MIHR found at least five detention locations, three of them in the village of Dymer. Most often, relatives of the detainees mention the premises of the plastic windows manufacturer Viknaland (22-E Vyshneva Street, Dymer). Other locations include the foundry and factory Master-Dakh in Dymer, non-residential buildings in the village of Syniak and a glass factory in Gostomel.

The conditions of detention are atrocious. The detainees have their hands tied behind their backs and their eyes covered with duct tape. They were taken to Gostomel to dig trenches. Some were released — by being taken away from the detention location blindfolded.

 

Dmytro Khyliuk, journalist of the UNIAN news agency, was among those detained in the village of Kozarovychi. According to his friends, he was detained on March 4, 2022.

Dmytro Khyliuk, journalist of the UNIAN news agency, was detained on March 4, 2022

 

«Opposing militaries are not allowed to detain civilians without grounds. Civilians are those who don’t bear arms and don’t identify themselves as members of the armed forces of the opposing side,» says Vitaly Khekalo, lawyer of the Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group.

On March 26, 2022, the city of Trostyanets, Sumy Oblast, was liberated from the Russian occupational forces. Ukrainian law enforcement officers are currently sweeping the city. According to the locals, in the evenings, Russian soldiers would break into people’s homes and detain them. MIHR is aware of at least two places where these hostages were taken: the police station and the railway station.

 

«One woman managed to get her son back from the railway station — she was on her knees, begging. In the end, they let her son go. According to him, there were many hostages in the room, living and dead, and there was blood everywhere,» says Igor, resident of Trostyanets, a masseur. Three of his clients were killed in the first days of the war. He believes that the Russians have been given permission by their leadership to shoot civilians at will.

 

More information on website of MIHR. For details, please contact our email: [email protected]

 

The material is made possible thanks to USAID Human Rights in Action Program.

USAID is the world’s premier international development agency and a catalytic actor driving development results. USAID’s work demonstrates American generosity, and promotes a path to recipient self-reliance and resilience, and advances U.S. national security and economic prosperity. USAID has partnered with Ukraine since 1992, providing more than $3 billion in assistance. USAID’s current strategic priorities include strengthening democracy and good governance, promoting economic development and energy security, improving health care systems, and mitigating the effects of the conflict in the east. For additional information about USAID in Ukraine, please call USAID’s Development Outreach and Communications Office at: +38 (044) 521-5753. You may also visit our website: http://www.usaid.gov/ukraine or our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/USAIDUkraine.

Euromaidan SOS Documents List of Activists Missing or Detained by Russia and Proposes Joint Campaign to Protect Them

Euromaidan SOS draws attention to the persecution of local government officials, journalists, religious leaders, volunteers and civil society activists on the territories of Ukraine temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation following its invasion in February 2022.

On March 16, 2022, the Russian occupiers captured the secretary of the Nova Kakhovka City Council, Dmitry Vasiliev. He is being tortured

We receive appeals from civil society activists and their relatives who have suffered from threats, physical violence, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and other forms of persecution in Melitopol, Kherson, Berdyansk, Kakhovka, Slavutych and other cities and settlements.

In 2014, Russia already pursued a deliberate policy of a kind in order to quickly gain control over Ukrainian territories – Crimea and a part of Donbas. At the time, pro-Russian illegal armed groups were either physically eliminating people with active stand who could peacefully resist the occupation or evicting them from the region. The abductions of civic activists gave occupants a sense of impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity that they continue committing against the citizens of Ukraine.

Today, Russia applies the same policy deliberately, as it cannot hold occupied cities due to the active resistance of the local population.

Given the growing number of hostage-taking cases, these actions should be considered as a prohibited method of warfare. The correctness of such an approach is confirmed by the specific purpose of these actions, namely, to force civil society activists to cooperate with the representatives of the aggressor country or to terminate public activities of human rights defenders, journalists and other persons protected by the international humanitarian law.

Euromaidan SOS reminds that in the context of an international armed conflict, the detention of civilians is strictly prohibited under Article 34 the (IV) Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War as of 12 August 1949 and Article 75 of the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions as of 12 August 1949 relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol 1) as of 8 June 1977.

In addition, the rescued civil society activists report on the threats, illegal physical violence and inadequate conditions of detention, which violate the guarantees of treatment of civilians and is to be considered a war crime.

 

In connection with the above, Euromaidan SOS urges:

  1.     representatives of civil society in Ukraine and other countries to join the campaign to protect people who have been left alone with the occupier, and to do so, to fill up this form: https://forms.gle/enr5822SvPrJZC6Y7
  1. people who have witnessed a person’s detention or have any other information about persecution in the occupied territories, report it in the form: https://forms.gle/d9g8q51BikCE5pnN9
  1.   ODIHR OSCE, the OSCE Permanent Council, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, monitoring and convention mechanisms of the Council of Europe, geographical and thematic mandates of the United Nations, UN Human Rights Council, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), International Committee of the Red Cross to ensure an international presence in Ukrainian territories, temporarily occupied after the Russian invasion in February 2022, and to take active actions to protect civil society activists from persecution.
  2. Governments of foreign states to cooperate with the Government of Ukraine in the prosecution of persons complicit in enforced disappearances and other international crimes in the occupied territories.

 

Below we provide a public part of the list of representatives of civil society, who as of March 26, 2022 are missing or being illegally detained by Russia (the list is not full and data constantly being updated):

  1. Tetiana Bezliudna, deputy of the village council of Andriyivka village, Chernihiv region;
  2. Dmytro Vasyliev, secretary of Nova Kakhovka city council, Nova Kakhovka, Kherson Region;
  3. Volodymyr Karaberov, head of Manhush territorial community of Mariupol district, Donetsk region;
  4. Oleksiy Kartsan, head of the village of Hremyach, Novhorod-Siverskyi district, Kharkiv region;
  5. Victor Marunyak, head of Starozburyiv united territorial community of Starostyn district,Holoprystan city council of Skadovsk district, Kherson region;
  6. Yevhen Matveev, Mayor of Dniprorudne, Zaporizhia region;
  7. Oleksandr Musienko, head of Chulakiv united territorial community of Holoprystan district, Kherson region;
  8. Yuri Palyukh, secretary of Skadovsk city council, Skadovsk, Kherson Region
  9. Oleksandr Ponomarev, member of Ukrainian parliament, disappeared in the city of Berdyansk;
  10. Serhiy Pryima, head of Melitopol district council, city of Melitopol, Zaporizhia region;
  11. Ivan Samoidyuk, first deputy mayor of Energodar;
  12. Mykola Sikalenko, head of Tsyrkuniv united territorial community of Kharkiv district, Kharkiv region;
  13. Volodymyr Tyurin, deputy head of civil-military administration of Shchastya, the city of Shchastya, Luhansk region;
  14. Oleksandr Shapovalov, mayor of Beryslav, Kherson region;
  15. Mykola Masliy, deputy of Kupyansk city council, Kharkiv region.
  16. Tetiana Svyrydenko, head of Ivankivka village council of Vyshhorod district, Kyiv region;
  17. Zarivnyi Oleksandr Hryhorovych, City council official; Oleshkiv City Council of Kherson Region.
  18. Mykhailo Reznikov, pastor of the Church of Evangelical Baptists, Mariupol, Donetsk region.
  19. Andriy Fomenko, minister of the Church of Evangelical Baptists, Mariupol, Donetsk region.
  20. Vasyl Vyrozub, priest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Odesa region.
  21. Dmytro Bodyu, bishop of the “Word of Life” Christian Evangelical Church, Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region.
  22. Serhiy Tsygipa, public figure, Nova Kakhovka city, Kherson region.
  23. Max Levin, photojournalist, disappeared on Front Line Near Kyiv.
  24. Kumok Mykhailo, publisher  “Local News – Melitopol”, Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region.
  25. Khropun Volodymyr Vasyliovych, Red Cross volunteer; Kyiv region.
  26. Julia Ivannikova-Katsemon, Red Cross volunteer; Kyiv region.
  27. Mykola Budalovskyi, head of the village Andriyivka, Chernihiv region.
  28. Olexandr Medvediov, head of Snovsk territorial community;
  29. Bozhko Hryhoriy, Businessman, former deputy of the Chernihiv regional council, Chernihiv region.
  30. Dmytro Afanasyev, deputy of Korabel’ regional council, Kherson region
  31. Dmytro Takadjy, head of Nyzhni Sirohozy urban-type settlement, Kherson region.
  32. Sukhenko Olha Petrivna, head of Motyzhyn village, Makariv united territorial community, Kyiv region.
  33. Talalai Ihor Viktorovych, volunteer (transported people from Mariupol to Dnipro), Mangush, Donetsk region.
  34. Julia Payevska, volunteer and paramedic, Mariupol, Donetsk region.
  35. Oleg Myroshnyk, Bilovodsk settlement  mayor, Luhansk region.
  36. Vasyl Mitko, Nikolske settlement mayor, Donetsk region.

 

 

MIHR and UHHRU are Doing a Newsletter with Reports from War Zones

Are you interested in reports from war zones with eyewitness accounts? In conjunction with UHHRU, MIHR is doing a newsletter containing the most important facts!

Since the war began, media and social networks have stepped up their work, posting much greater volumes of information than before. It’s impossible to process it all – and all too easy to miss our own materials in the confusion.

To prevent this, we’ve launched a newsletter, in Ukrainian and English. Twice a week, we will be mailing out fresh updates on the situation in war zones.

 

Why you will find our newsletter useful:

  • we publish only original materials;
  • we interview witnesses of war crimes and, with their consent, we can share the contact information of these heroes;
  • our materials feature comments from lawyers on the legal qualification of crimes, legal aspects of specific cases, etc.

Sign up for the Ukrainian newsletter HERE.

Sign up for the English newsletter HERE.

 

Please check your spam and advertising folder after subscribing.

 

UHHRU participation in the creation of information materials was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the framework of the Human Rights in Action Program implemented by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union.

USAID is the world’s premier international development agency and a catalytic actor driving development results. USAID’s work demonstrates American generosity, and promotes a path to recipient self-reliance and resilience, and advances U.S. national security and economic prosperity. USAID has partnered with Ukraine since 1992, providing more than $3 billion in assistance. USAID’s current strategic priorities include strengthening democracy and good governance, promoting economic development and energy security, improving health care systems, and mitigating the effects of the conflict in the east. For additional information about USAID in Ukraine, please call USAID’s Development Outreach and Communications Office at: +38 (044) 521-5753. You may also visit our website: http://www.usaid.gov/ukraine or our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/USAIDUkraine.

The webinar “Powers and Reason: the Nuremberg Legacy Today”

The webinar “Powers and Reason: the Nuremberg Legacy Today”, 1 March, 16:30.

The Nuremberg trial of the Nazi leadership was famously described as “one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason”. Its enduring – and, what some believed to be, unshakable – deterrent legacy, however, has come under unparalleled testing today amidst the extraordinary escalation of the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
As conversations pertaining to the redefining of the post-World War II rules-based systems and security architecture enter international discourse, the panellists will discuss:
  • How did each Allied Power contribute to shaping the workings of the International Military Tribunal?
  • Is its contemplated mission gradually leaving The Hague and Arusha to settle and expand in domestic jurisdictions?
  • How can Nuremberg’s milestones and flaws inform Ukraine’s avenues for justice for Russian aggression?
  • What can we learn from our failures to confront Russia’s recent and progressive criminal actions in the region?
Speakers:
  • Francine Hirsch, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison;
  • David J. Luban, University Professor and Professor of Law and Philosophy, Georgetown University;
  • Guénaël Mettraux, Judge, Kosovo Specialist Chambers; Professor of Law, University of Amsterdam.
Moderator:
Kateryna Busol, lawyer, Senior Lecturer, National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
REGISTRATION:
The event will be held in English and through the Zoom platform, simultaneous translation into Ukrainian will be provided.
If you would like to participate in the discussion and/or send your questions and comments to the Zoom chat, please register here: https://cutt.ly/IPGuLJM.
You can also follow the webinar on other platforms. The original English discussion will be broadcasted on the YouTube page of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union: https://cutt.ly/JcVI3Nc. The Ukrainian translation of the discussion will be broadcasted on the Facebook page of the UHHRU: https://cutt.ly/ecVIXiN.
Organisers:
Media Initiative for Human Rights
USAID Human Rights in Action Program
Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union
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This event is a part of #InternationalLawTalks – a series of webinars aimed to facilitate qualitative, interesting and accessible discussions on the topical issues of international law in Ukraine.
For each session, the webinars bring together distinguished professionals from Ukraine and abroad. They contextualise the armed conflict, peace and transitional justice issues in Ukraine within the larger dynamics of international law and international relations.
The aim of the project is twofold: to help Ukrainian legal professionals and the general public see the wider horizons of their native context and to provide more local and regional insight to international colleagues.
This event was made possible by the generous support of the American people through USAID Ukraine in the framework of the Human Rights in Action Program implemented by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union.
USAID is the world’s premier international development agency and a catalytic actor driving development results. USAID’s work demonstrates American generosity, and promotes a path to recipient self-reliance and resilience, and advances U.S. national security and economic prosperity. USAID has partnered with Ukraine since 1992, providing more than $3 billion in assistance. USAID’s current strategic priorities include strengthening democracy and good governance, promoting economic development and energy security, improving health care systems, and mitigating the effects of the conflict in the east. For additional information about USAID in Ukraine, please call USAID’s Development Outreach and Communications Office at: +38 (044) 521-5753. You may also visit our website: http://www.usaid.gov/ukraine or our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/USAIDUkraine.

UHHRU Digest No 3(75) for December 2021 – January 2022, USAID Human Rights in Action Program

We would like to offer you the Digest of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, which is issued within the USAID Human Rights in Action Program in order to inform about UHHRU’s activities as well as current events in Ukraine in the field of human rights. 

If you wish to receive the Digest by email, please refer to this link: 

https://helsinki.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=55931f67689dff8cbf6e6be93&id=fe614a0d12. 

See the Digest No 3(75) HERE in English and HERE in Ukrainian.

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USAID is the world’s premier international development agency and a catalytic actor driving development results. USAID’s work demonstrates American generosity, and promotes a path to recipient self-reliance and resilience, and advances U.S. national security and economic prosperity. USAID has partnered with Ukraine since 1992, providing more than $3 billion in assistance. USAID’s current strategic priorities include strengthening democracy and good governance, promoting economic development and energy security, improving health care systems, and mitigating the effects of the conflict in the east. 

For additional information about USAID in Ukraine, please call USAID’s Development Outreach and Communications Office at: +38 (044) 521-57–53. You may also visit our website: http://www.usaid.gov/ukraine or our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/USAIDUkraine. 

Crimea beyond rules. Issue №6 Occupied property

More than 6 years have passed since the release of the second issue of the Thematic Review
«Crimea beyond Rules», devoted to the observance by the Russian Federation, as an Occupying
Power, of the rights of owners of property located on the territory of the Autonomous Republic of
Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. A series of events that occurred during this time on the territory
of the occupied peninsula encouraged us to prepare a new Thematic Review covering the entire
period of the occupation, from February 2014 to June 2021.

See the Thematic Review in English HERE  and in Ukrainian HERE .

ZOOM-webinar: “2021: Human Rights in Review”. The Interplay of the Russia-Ukraine Armed Conflict with the Larger Crucial Regional and International Developments

Time and place: 16:00-17:30 EET.


The webinar will look into the interplay of the Russia-Ukraine armed conflict with the larger crucial regional and international developments such as the refugee manipulations at the Belarus-Polish border, the Poland-EU divide, the creeping encroachment on human rights organisations in Russia, the change of leadership in Germany, the resurrection of the Taliban and Russia’s engagement with them and the policies of President Biden’s Administration and post-Brexit Britain towards Ukraine and Russia.

 

Speakers:

Ms Oleksandra Matviichuk, Head of the Board of the Ukrainian human rights NGO Centre for Civil Liberties.

Dr Cindy Wittke, the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, a principal investigator of the project ‘Between Conflict and Cooperation: The Politics of International Law in the post-Soviet Space’.Moderator:

Dr Kateryna Busol, lawyer, Senior Lecturer, National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

 

REGISTRATION:

The event will be held in English and through the Zoom platform, simultaneous translation into Ukrainian will be provided.

If you would like to participate in the discussion and/or send your questions and comments to the Zoom chat, please register here: https://bit.ly/3dYcWmD

You can also follow the webinar on other platforms. The original English discussion will be broadcasted on the YouTube page of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union: https://cutt.ly/JcVI3Nc. The Ukrainian translation of the discussion will be broadcasted on the Facebook pages of the organisers: https://cutt.ly/3cVIDXI, https://cutt.ly/ecVIXiN. 

 

Organisers:

Media Initiative for Human Rights

USAID Human Rights in Action Program

Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union

 

This event is a part of #InternationalLawTalks – a series of webinars aimed to facilitate qualitative, interesting and accessible discussions on the topical issues of international law in Ukraine. 

 

For each session, the webinars bring together distinguished professionals from Ukraine and abroad. They contextualise the armed conflict, peace and transitional justice issues in Ukraine within the larger dynamics of international law and international relations. 

 

The aim of the project is twofold: to help Ukrainian legal professionals and the general public see the wider horizons of their native context and to provide more local and regional insight to international colleagues.

 

This event was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the framework of the Human Rights in Action Program implemented by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union.

USAID is the world’s premier international development agency and a catalytic actor driving development results. USAID’s work demonstrates American generosity, and promotes a path to recipient self-reliance and resilience, and advances U.S. national security and economic prosperity. USAID has partnered with Ukraine since 1992, providing more than $3 billion in assistance. USAID’s current strategic priorities include strengthening democracy and good governance, promoting economic development and energy security, improving health care systems, and mitigating the effects of the conflict in the east. For additional information about USAID in Ukraine, please call USAID’s Development Outreach and Communications Office at: +38 (044) 521-5753. You may also visit our website: http://www.usaid.gov/ukraine or our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/USAIDUkraine.

UHHRU Digest No 1(73) for October 2021, USAID Human Rights in Action Program

We would like to offer you the Digest of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, which is issued within the USAID Human Rights in Action Program in order to inform about UHHRU’s activities as well as current events in Ukraine in the field of human rights. 

If you wish to receive the Digest by email, please refer to this link: 

https://helsinki.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=55931f67689dff8cbf6e6be93&id=fe614a0d12. 

See the Digest No 1(73) HERE in English and HERE in Ukrainian.

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USAID is the world’s premier international development agency and a catalytic actor driving development results. USAID’s work demonstrates American generosity, and promotes a path to recipient self-reliance and resilience, and advances U.S. national security and economic prosperity. USAID has partnered with Ukraine since 1992, providing more than $3 billion in assistance. USAID’s current strategic priorities include strengthening democracy and good governance, promoting economic development and energy security, improving health care systems, and mitigating the effects of the conflict in the east. 

For additional information about USAID in Ukraine, please call USAID’s Development Outreach and Communications Office at: +38 (044) 521-57–53. You may also visit our website: http://www.usaid.gov/ukraine or our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/USAIDUkraine.