3 December 2013
Call to protect Ukrainian peaceful protestors and their right to take part in the conduct of public affairs
Mr President,
We, the undersigned members and partners of the Human Rights House Network (HRHN), condemn in the strongest terms the excessive use of force by Ukrainian authorities to disperse peaceful demonstrations, following the refusal by Ukraine to sign the European Union association agreement. We call upon you, Mr President, to immediately revoke measures aiming at using force against protestors and release all protestors and journalists detained, and ensure that relatives of injured and arrested protestors and journalists were informed of their situation.
Ukrainian people have again and again expressed their strong belief in European integration. Their aspiration was to go one step further in the rapprochement at the European Partnership Summit of 28-29 November 2013. In order to support democratic values, striving to establish high human rights standards and to improve the social and economic situation in Ukraine, thousands of people gathered on Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Kyiv’s Independence Square.
The 29-30 November 2013 demonstration on Maidan, essentially of students and activists, was peaceful until the police used excessive force to disperse it. We call upon Ukrainian authorities to undertake an independent and transparent investigation on the unlawful dispersal of the peaceful protest, and bring those responsible to justice, as requested by one of the members of the Human Rights House Kyiv, the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. The demonstrations are taking place throughout the country as a reaction to Ukraine’s government not to sign any rapprochement with the European Union at the European Partnership Summit held in Vilnius the 28-29 November. The demonstrations are also a reaction to political and economic pressure by the Russian Federation to European Partnership countries, including Ukraine, aiming at a rapprochement with the European Union.
We are concerned that peaceful protestors and journalists are brought to Court today and tried without proper guarantees in regard to their legal rights to access lawyers and their remedies. 30 activists were arrested and were brought to Court today under charges of hooliganism (to our knowledge, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv on 2 December sent the protocols back to police due to lack of proof against the activists who however stay under arrest). Another member of the Human Rights House Kyiv, the Information Centre for Human Rights reports that 52 journalists were injured by police forces or by stones and grenades thrown by violent elements. The Centre for Civil Liberties, also a member of the Human Rights House Kyiv, is coordinating the legal aid “EuroMaidanSOS” since Sunday night. The Centre has received around 200 phone calls during the weekend. So far, they have registered 75 complaints related to arrests, beatings and people who were temporarily taken away from the 29-30 November demonstration. This does not include clashes with the police in front of the Presidential Administration Sunday 1 December. We call upon Ukrainian authorities to immediately and unconditionally drop all charges against peaceful protestors and journalists, release and compensate all of them, and ensure that they can carry out their work.
According to “EuroMaidanSOS”, 14 people (youth activists and students apparently) have disappeared, since the police intervention on 29-30 November 2013 at Maidan Nezalezhnosti. “EuroMaidanSOS” and human rights groups have called hospitals but not found information allowing them to trace back to the disappeared people. We call upon you, Mr President, to ensure that law enforcement authorities inform relatives of injured and arrested protestors of their situation. Ukraine has the obligation to protect anybody from being a victim of an enforced disappearance, even more so when injured or arrested by law enforcement authorities at a peaceful protest.
The massive presence of people in the streets can only be explained by the willingness of Ukrainians to take part in the conduct of public affairs. They were promised a rapprochement with the European Union, but the surprising decision by the Ukrainian government to not take any further step to do so, meant for citizens that their space to express their disagreement was the streets. Today, protestors occupy streets of Kyiv, as well as official governmental buildings. Their aim is not to destroy those buildings but to protest the decision of the Ukrainian government by blocking them. The excessive use of force, the arrest of peaceful protestors and beating of activists and journalists, is a sign that authorities aim at silencing those expressing their aspiration for change instead of ensuring public safety. The use of force in such a way is a sign of authorities unwilling to have their policies debated by citizens. We advise the Ukrainian authorities not to use any further police force, which would only create more tensions and not bring any solution to the country.
At its Universal Periodic Review (UPR), Ukraine accepted to implement a law on freedom of assembly that complies with applicable standards under article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 16 December 1966. At the review of Ukraine on 8 and 9 July 2013, the Human Rights Committee expressed its concern “at the lack of a domestic legal framework regulating peaceful events and at the application by domestic courts of outdated regulations which are not in line with international standards and severely restrict the right to freedom of assembly.” As President of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has an additional moral responsibility in implementing its commitments in regard to human rights. The last days events prove that Ukraine has not taken recommendations made in regard to freedom of assembly seriously and not updated its methods and application of legislation in order to avoid the excessive use of force against peaceful protestors.
We call upon you, Mr President, to follow advice from Ukrainian civil society, including by:
• Taking concrete measures aiming at stopping the use of force by police to disperse protestors, even if they occupy governmental buildings, and to publicly acknowledge the right of anybody to peacefully protest and the duty of the State security forces to protect peaceful protestors;
• Undertaking an independent and transparent investigation on the unlawful dispersal of the peaceful protest of 29-30 November 2013, and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice and do not enjoy impunity;
• Immediately and unconditionally dropping all charges against peaceful protestors and journalists, release and compensate all of them;
• Ensuring that law enforcement authorities inform relatives of injured and arrested protestors of their situation, protecting everybody from being a victim of an enforced disappearance, including by immediately investigating the cases of 14 people disappeared following the police intervention on 29-30 November 2013 at Maidan Nezalezhnosti;
• Ensuring that human rights NGOs and journalists are able to monitor assemblies and report on police violence without fearing retaliation, and that human rights defenders and activists are not charged for participating in peaceful protests.
Sincerely,
Human Rights House Kyiv (on behalf of the following NGOs):
• Center for Civil Liberties
• Ukrainian Legal Aid Foundation
• Ukrainian Helsinki Human rights Union
• Human Rights Information Center
• Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group
• Association of Ukrainian Human Rights Monitors on Law Enforcement (Association UMDPL)
Azerbaijan Human Rights House (on behalf of the following NGOs):
• Women's Association for Rational Development
• Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety
• Society for Humanitarian Research
• Media Rights Institute
• Association for the Protection of Women’s Rights in Azerbaijan after D. Aliyeva
• Legal Education Society
• Azerbaijan Lawyers Association
• Public Union of Democracy and Human Rights Resource Centre
Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House in exile, Vilnius
Human Rights House Belgrade (on behalf of the following NGOs):
• Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
• Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM)
• Belgrade Centre for Human Rights
Human Rights House Sarajevo (on behalf of the following NGOs):
• Association Transitional Justice Accountability and Remembrance in Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Renesansa
• Serbian Civic Council
Human Rights House Tbilisi (on behalf of the following NGOs):
• Article 42 of the Constitution
• Caucasian Centre for Human Rights and Conflict Studies
• Georgian Centre for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims
• Human Rights Centre
• Union Sapari – Family without Violence
Human Rights House Oslo (on behalf of the following NGOs):
• Human Rights House Foundation
• Health and Human Rights Info
• Norwegian Helsinki Committee
Human Rights House Voronezh (on behalf of the following NGOs):
• Charitable Foundation
• Civic Initiatives Development Center
• Confederation of Free Labor
• For Ecological and Social Justice
• Free University
• Golos
• Interregional Trade Union of Literary Men
• Lawyers for labor rights
• Memorial
• Ms. Olga Gnezdilova
• Soldiers Mothers of Russia
• Voronezh Journalist Club
• Voronezh-Chernozemie
• Youth Human Rights Movement
Human Rights House Yerevan (on behalf of the following NGOs):
• Armenian Helsinki Association
• Helsinki Citizens' Assembly – Vanadzor
• Public Information and Need of Knowledge NGO
• Socioscope
• Shahkhatun
• Journalists’ Club “Asparez” NGO
• Jurists against Torture
Human Rights House Zagreb (on behalf of the following NGOs):
• Association for Promotion of Equal Opportunities for People with Disabilities
• B.a.B.e. – Be active, Be emancipated
• Centre for Peace Studies
• Documenta – Centre for Dealing with the Past
• GOLJP - Civic Committee for Human Rights
• Svitanje - Association for Protection and Promotion of Mental Health
Election Monitoring and Education Center, Azerbaijan
Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Poland
Human Rights Club, Azerbaijan
Human Rights Network Uganda (HURINET-U)
Index on Censorship, United Kingdom
Institute for Peace and Democracy, Azerbaijan
Rafto Foundation, Norway
Woman Crisis Center, Azerbaijan
About the Human Rights House Network (www.humanrightshouse.org)
The Human Rights House Network (HRHN) unites 87 human rights NGOs joining forces in 18 independent Human Rights Houses in 16 countries in Western Balkans, Eastern Europe and South Caucasus, East and Horn of Africa, and Western Europe. HRHN’s mandate is to protect, empower and support human rights organisations locally and unite them in an international network of Human Rights Houses.
The Human Rights House Kyiv is one of the members of HRHN. 10 independent Ukrainian human rights NGOs are members of the Human Rights House Kyiv.
The Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF), based in Oslo (Norway) with an office in Geneva (Switzerland), is HRHN’s secretariat. HRHF is international partner of the South Caucasus Network of Human Rights Defenders and the emerging Balkan Network of Human Rights Defenders.
HRHF has consultative status with the United Nations and HRHN has participatory status with the Council of Europe.
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