Human rights groups presented the report “Human Rights in Ukraine: International and National Dimensions of 2015”. During the discussion the interim results of alternative reports prepared by human rights defenders in 2015 to the UN Committee on Human Rights and the UN Committee against Torture, as well as thematic reports on the results of monitoring missions in Donbass and the AR Crimea were presented.

Under the section “The Situation in the Country” experts identified the need for a public effective mechanisms of control of the authorities, since during 2015 the latter tried to ignore the rule of law, justifying their own mistakes by “political expediency”, “need for lustration”, “conditions of armed conflict”, etc.

Concerning the implementation of Ukraine’s international obligations under the Universal Periodic Review of Ukraine (UPR), the experts said that out of 114 recommendations only 3% had been carried out. At least 46% of the recommendations remain at the level of non-performance or poor performance. This situation threatens the success of European integration policy of Ukraine, because failure to implement UN recommendations is combined with outright ineffective results of reforms in the pension and medical industries, and the adoption of new laws “On Prosecution”, “the National Police”, “On education” has only created the legislative framework for reforms, but has not led to positive changes.

In speeches of thematic block “Violation of Human Rights in the Territory not Controlled by Ukraine” activists rated the full range of challenges to which Ukraine was not prepared in any way: illegal annexation of Crimea by Russian troops, the military conflict in the Donbass, and as a result – appearance of internally displaced persons as a new category of people that need special protection.

Experts of NGOs have offered the state their own set of mechanisms to influence the crisis – the active cooperation with the International Criminal Court for the deployment of due process of documenting of war crimes by joint efforts.

The event is supported by the Swedish Government