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.

Eastern oblasts of Ukraine became leaders in terms of quantity of bans – Kharkiv oblasts – 8 bans, Luhansk oblast – 7 bans and Dnipropetrovsk oblast – 7 bans.

A remarkable example of violating the right to peaceful assembly is a verdict of the Kyiv Administrative Court prohibiting picketing central streets of Kyiv for ‘the dead, living and unborn people’. It is worth mentioning that this decision was adopted at 8 p.m. on a national holiday.

Human rights activists are convinced that such court decisions are worth appealing against and anyone can do so.

‘Every citizen must understand that he or she should protect his or her rights himself/herself. We encourage people to prepare the largest lawsuit to protect their right to peaceful assembly and the right to express their opinions in Kyiv city center.’ – said Maxym Latsyba, Expert, Ukrainian Independent Center for Political Studies.

Therefore, on Friday, January 17, 2014 at 12:30, on the Independence Square at the information tent of the Democratic Alliance the collect signatures began of those who wanted to join the appeal to recall the Kyiv Administrative Court’s decision.

The organizers have prepared all the necessary materials. They believe that the more people sign the appeal, the more chances to win it.

This action will last until 8 p.m. Sunday, January 19, 2014.

For those who would like to join we have posted the text of the appeal, the application for joining and completion guidelines:

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One hour after the action began, 107 signatures were collected.

This action was organized by members of the Partnership for Freedom of Peaceful Assembly, the Ukrainian Independent Center for Political Studies, the Center for Political and Legal Reforms with information support provided by the Human Rights Information Center and the Youth of Democratic Alliance.