The UHHRU is pleased to welcome a new member of the Union – the Postup [Progress] Human Rights Centre in Luhansk. The organization seeks to provide comprehensive defence of human rights and promote human rights awareness in Ukraine. The Head of Postup, Kostyantyn Reutsky spoke about his organization and its plans.

He explained that they believe that the human rights community in Ukraine needs to consolidate and that UHHRU is one of the most successful examples of such consolidation. He stresses that they had previously cooperated with UHHRU members and believe that formalizing their relations will be mutually beneficial.

Plans for the near future

“Nothing radical will change and we will continue to address the problems of children from groups at risk. We are planning this year and next to carry out monitoring of the situation regarding violence against children from high-risk groups by law enforcement officers. The work of child human rights advice centres will continue, as will our partner participation in the programme “We understand human rights” and development of a network of human rights activists (Internet resource).

Another priority for us is defence of journalists’ rights and the assault on freedom of speech. This year we initiated and are supporting a public campaign against censorship in order to get the Law on the Protection of Public Morality revoked.

We are also beginning to gather information regarding pressure on journalists and regional media outlets I think that with time this will be made a separate area of our work.

We have also been a regional partner since 2007 of the Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Docudays.Ua.  We would very much like this year to show the opening film of the Festival “The Other Chelsea” in Luhansk since this is a highly striking film which is important and vital for our region”.

Postup has its own website at: http://postup.lg.ua/

The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union is the largest association of human rights NGOs in Ukraine. It aims to promote practical implementation of the humanitarian articles of the 1975 Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and other international legal documents adopted for its development, as well as all Ukraine’s human rights obligations.