The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union [UHHRU], together with the civic campaign “New Citizen” and with the help of kind demons, have passed humanitarian assistance to Ukraine’s Supreme Court.

The Court’s judges received 60 copies of the European Convention on Human Rights.

It should be noted that the demons, together with UHHRU Executive Director Volodymyr Yavorsky, made 5 attempts to pass the copies of the Convention to the Court. It was only on the fifth attempt that Supreme Court staff agreed to accept the humanitarian aid.

The organizers of the action hope that now, when this vital document has appeared in the highest judicial level in the country, that judges will remember the principle of justice.

As reported here, during 2009 the Supreme Court on a number of occasions demonstrated contempt for the principles of justice and for Ukraine’s international commitments, so undermining the standing of the judiciary. It refused, for example, to revoke the conviction of Oleksandr Yaremenko, despite the doubts regarding the fairness of the judicial examination expressed quite unambiguously by the European Court of Human Rights. In the case of Lutsenko v. Ukraine, the Supreme Court refused even to reconsider the verdict in the wake of a judgment from Strasbourg.

Not unexpectedly, this year the Supreme Court received one of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Thistle of the Year – 2009 Anti-Awards, bestowed on the worst violators of human rights in the country.