Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union
Annual Activity Report 2008
- History of the organization
“We’ll be protecting human rights so long as mankind will exist.
It’ll be possible to stop only when solar system
will vanish and there will be no more people.”
Yuriy Orlov, professor, physicist, dissident,
one of theHelsinki human rights movement founders
Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union was officially registered on June 30, 2004. But the long history preceded this event.
Final Act of Conference on Co-operation and Security in Europe was signed August 1st, 1975 in Helsinki, and laid foundation for new development of international relations in Europe on the basis of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Ukrainian Group for Promoting of Helsinki Treaties Implementation (UHG) was organized on November 9th 1976. But its actual activity was stopped by the repressions of Soviet government.
Later, on initiative of Ukrainian Helsinki Group activists, its activity was renewed –Ukrainian Helsinki Union was created. Unfortunately, that time the organization had the clear political, but not human rights goals and interests. Because it members set the goal of Ukraine’s independence renewal. Later, in 1990 it at factstopped the activity and was transformed into the Ukrainian Republican Party. The informal human rights movement Committee “Helsinki-90” was organized in June the same year.
In 2000 – 2003 years work on creation of human rights organizations network became more intensive. Council of Ukrainian human rights organizations (RUPOR) with separate office in Kyiv was organized in 2003 for coordination of human rights defenders’ joint activity, on initiative of Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group.
After the First forum of human rights organizations “Human rights monitoring during elections”, which was organized by RUPOR, theConstituent Assembly of Association of human rights organizations “Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union” took place on 1st April 2004. One of its founders was the Committee “Helsinki-90”. The new stage in the joint work of many human rights organizations was begun.
The meeting of world-famous dissidents and human rights defenders washeld in Kyiv in 2008. Founders and members of Helsinki groups from post-soviet countries discussed the future ways of Helsinki human rights movement development, the contemporary challenges for human rights on post-soviet space and worldwide.
On the photo from the right: Vasyl Ovsienko (one of the founders Ukrainian Helsinki Group, member of the Supervisory Council of the UHHRU, Yuri Orlov, one of the founders of the Moscow Helsinki Group, NinaMarchenko, mother of the Valeriy Marchenko (member of the UHG), Mykola Matusevych, historian, Lyudmila Alekseeva, the President of the Moscow Helsinki Group and Alla Marchenko.
- Structure of the organization
The structure of the organization has the following view in schematic form:
The UHHRU consists of 23 human rights NGOs.
International women human rights centre “La-Strada-Ukraine” and NGO “Committee for monitoring freedom of the press in Crimea” became the members of UHHRU in May 2008.
In May 2008 Vinnytsya human rights group was excluded from UHHRU members by the decision of General Meeting, because of its activity, that has substantially bad influence on theAssociation’s name.
In July 2008 NGO “For professional assistance” (Poltava) reached the decision on it General Meeting to leave the UHHRU.
Full list of organizations-members of UHHRU is for your attention
1)The All-Ukrainian Society of Political Prisoners and Victims of Repression (including the Ukrainian Helsinki-90 Committee), Kyiv
2)The Association “Civic Initiative”, Kirovohrad
3)The Centre for Legal and Political Research “SIM” (Lviv)
4)The Centre for Research into Regional Policy (Sumy)
5)The Chernihiv Civic Committee for the Protection of Human Rights
6)The Chortkiv Civic Organization „Helsinki initiative – ХХІ” (Ternopil region)
7)The Civic Committee for the Protection of Constitutional Rights and Civil Liberties (Luhansk)
8)The Civic Organization “M’ART” [Youth Alternative], Chernihiv
9)The Committee on Monitoring Press Freedom in the Crimea
10)The Congress of National Communities of Ukraine,
11)The Donetsk Civic Human Rights Organization “Donetsk Memorial”
12)The Environmental Club “EOL”, city of Yuzhny, Odessa region
13)The International Women’s Human Rights Organization “La Strada – Ukraine”,
14)The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group,
15)The Kherson Regional Branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine
16)KhersonCity Association of Journalists “Pivden” [“South”]
17)The Konotop NGO “Dignity”, Konotop, Sumy Region
18)The KryvyRihCity Association of the All-Ukrainian Taras Shevchenko Society “Prosvita” [“Enlightenment”]
19)The Luhansk Regional Branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine
20)The Odessa Human Rights Group “Veritas”,
21)The “Respublica” Institute (Kyiv)
22)The Sevastopol’ Human Rights Group
23)The Sumy City Association “Civic Office "Pravozakhyst" [“Human rights protection”]
The Board of Association consists of representatives of the most known Ukrainian human rights organizations-members of UHHRU.
In 2008 Arkadiy Bushchenko, 42-years old, was elected to the post of the Board Chairman. He is skilled human rights defender, lawyerand member of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group.
Arkadiy Bushchenko graduated National Academy of Ukraine on specialty of jurisprudence, since 2003 has being worked in the sphere of human rights protection. He has put more than 40 applications in European Court of Human Rights (Afanasyev v Ukraine, Soldatenko v Ukraine and others). Newly elected Chairman is an expert of working group on developing the draft of new Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine of the National Commission on strengthening democracy and rule of law under the President of Ukraine. Also Bushchenko is an author of 9 books and 15 publications on human rights issues.
Board members
- Arkadiy Bushchenko – the Board Chair (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, Kharkiv)
- Olexandr Bukalov – (Donetsk Memorial, Donetsk)
- Mykola Kozyryev – (The Public Committee of constitutional rights and freedoms protection, Luhansk)
- Olexandr Stepanenko – (“Helsinki Initiative-XXI”, Chortkiv, Ternopil region)
- Mykola Korobko – (Kryvyi Rih City Association of Ukrainian Society “Enlightenment” named after Taras Shevchenko, Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovs’k region)
- Volodymyr Chemerys – (The Institute“Republic”, Kyiv)
- Alla Tyutyunnyk – (KhersonCity Association of Journalists “South”, Kherson)
- Sergiy Burov − (YouthCity NGO “Youth Alternative”, “M’ART”, Chernihiv)
- Volodymyr Ponomarenko – (Konotop Organization of Consumers and Taxpayers “Dignity”, Konotop, Sumy region)
The Supervisory board of Association consists of the famous human rights activists of 1960-1980 years: Zynoviy Antonyuk, Mykola Horbal, Yosyp Zisels, Vasyl Lisovyi, Vasyl Ovsiyenko, Yevgen Pronyuk and Yevgen Sverstyuk.
UHHRU is managed by (the main office in Kyiv):
Volodymyr Yavorskyy – Executive Director
Lyudmyla Yelcheva –Finance Director
Iryna Kuchynska – Accountant
Maxym Shcherbatyuk – Lawyer
Oleg Levytskyi – Lawyer
Maryna Govoruhina – PR-manager, journalist
Natalya Morgun – Secretary
Vitaliy Novikov – UHHRU web-site administrator
- The main directions of activity
Association conducts such main directions of activity:
- protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the courts,in the bodies of state authority and local self-governments; rendering of legal assistance for the persons for their rights and freedoms protection;
- the regular monitoring of situation with fundamental freedoms and human rights observance in Ukraine and providing of information about the cases of rights and freedoms violations;
- conducting of researches in the sphere of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including permanent monitoring of the drafts of laws and other legal acts, counteracting the adoption of statutory acts which disimprove the ensuring of rights and freedoms, the public discussions of the drafts of normative acts, developing of own proposals;
- human rights education: holding of educational events and campaigns, seminars, trainings, conferences, schools, etc;
- development and support of human rights organizations.
- Protection of the victims of human rights abuses
Legal consultations rendering concerning the individual cases of rights and freedoms violations
Experienced lawyers hold the citizens consultations as at the office in Kyiv for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups of society (on Mondays since 2 p.m. till 6 p.m.), so they do the same remotely.
Office of Association in Kyiv has provided 492 consultations in written form during 2008. The responses contained the information about the possible ways of violated rights protection. With reference to messages received,UHHRU also systematically urge the corresponding state authorities with the aim to renew or protect persons’ rights. In separate cases, free layer is provided.
Legal assistance is also rendered on-line on the UHHRU web-site in the way of the questions answering in the section “Questions to human rights defender”. This section is the most visited and popular among the people. 1854 on-line consultations have being provided in 2008. It is twice as many as in 2007.
Public advisory receptioncentres of UHHRU
In 2008, supported by “Oxfam Novib”, UHHRU continued to coordinate the work of the only one network of public receptions for rendering the people the primary free of charge legal assistance.
The UHHRU receptions provide the next kinds of legal assistance:
informational-consultative assistance;
support on documents preparation, including drafting of the claims;
presentations of persons’ interests in courts and other state authority bodies;
elaborating of applications to the European Court of Human Rights.
Receptions work due to the unique standard of appeals and consultations registration, observing the code of ethics, the activity order and procedures. The joint information space among the receptions is created and exchange of information is established. The UHHRU has developed the one electronic data base, which contains the information about each of applied person.
At this time network consists of 12 receptions, which are situated in Kherson, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Kirovograd, Lviv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Ternopil, Konotop (Sumy region), Severodonetsk (Luhansk region), Sevastopol and Kyiv.
Reception of citizens in these cities holds as minimum once a week. Also many people address their appeals in written form (letters), by phone and through the Internet. Beside the receptions of citizens in regional offices, every organization organizes mobile consultations to the difficult of access places, where often there are no possibilities to receive any legal assistance.
7009 consultations have been provided by these receptions in 2008. More often retirees, unwed mothers and families with many children, convicted and accused persons, victims of the crimes apply to the receptions for their rights protection. More than 51% of consultations have been provided for the women. Most of all citizens complain about courts, police and bodies of local self-government.
By this link you can find the contacts of public legal receptions or put the question to UHHRU rights defender:
(in Ukrainian)
Strategic Litigations Fund
Strategic litigation Fund was established with the aim to provide the efficient legal assistance for victims of rights violation in cases, which have strategic importance. The strategic litigations are the cases that change legislation, administrative and judicial practice, or aimed at rights and freedoms defending regarding the particularly massive or abusive violations.
Legal assistance means the written and oral consultations, help with documents preparation, representation ofinterests of victims of human rights abuses in courtsand state authority bodies, international institutes. The support also can be provided by means of other methods, for example, researches, organizing of massive peaceful events, mass media information spreading and the other kinds of human rights campaigning arrangements.
UHHRU can fully or partly cover the costs of legal assistance services, if they doesn’t provide free of charge. Victims of human rights violations or other persons may cover with solidarity such expenses.
The Fund works with accordance to the Regulation that you can find at: (in Ukrainian). More information please find at:
Particularly, the special Strategic Litigation Fond of human rights in the sphere of health protection worked in 2008.
This activity is supported bythe International Renaissance Foundation and “Oxfam Novib” (the Netherlands).
Good examples of the Fund's work in 2008 are the following cases:
The Lemma Susarov Case
Lemma Susarov, a Russian Federation national from Samoshky village, fled from the ChechenRepublic to Azerbaijan at the end of 2005. In 2006 the UNHCR office in Baku declared him as refugee, issuing him with registration number 6030. Number 6032 was given to Ruslan Yeliyev from the same village. According to Lemma Susarov, the two men lived in the same flat in Baku.In the evening of 9 November 2006 Ruslan Yeliyev was abducted by unknown persons.Fearing for his life, Lemma Susarov fled to Ukraine.
But in Ukraine Susarov was detained by men in civilian clothes who he thinks were officers of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU). According to his lawyer, Oleg Levytsky, a bag was thrust over his head and he was dragged away, being beaten and threatened with being handed over to be dealt with by an FSB (Russian Federal Security Service) Major. It was only in the evening that Susarov was taken to a police station where he was held without lawful grounds until 25 June (instead of the legally stipulated in Ukraine 72 hours).
In 2008 the Kyiv District Administrative Court admitted ineligibility of Prosecutor’s General Office decision about his extradition to the Russian Federation. The same time Prosecutor’s General Office abolished its previous order and released Lemma Susarov from detention. At the present time the defendant of UHHRU lives in Finland.
Detailed information on thiscase can be found at:
Human rights prevail in Lema Susarov case
Court decision over Lema Susarov adjourned
Amnesty International: no safe haven for refugees in Ukraine
“Green card” for Lemma Susarov?
Lawyer demands access to Chechen threatened with extradition to Russia
U.S. State Department - 2008 Human Rights Reports: Ukraine
The case of General-major of Armed Forces of Ukraine Serhiy Savchenko
Three years ago Serhiy Savchenko sent his relatives from Iraq $47.5 thousand dollars. The money was discovered at customs and Savchenko was accused of smuggling. According to the law he had ten days for declaration filling in. He was not given this opportunity however, and a criminal investigation was immediately launched.
UHHRU took the case under its control and provided Mr Savchenko with a lawyer. The result was a second acquittal which left no grounds for doubt that he was innocent.
Materials on this case can be found at UHHRU web-site:
Ukrainian)
Case about alimony and dividends
One woman appealed to UHHRU with information about the absurd situation that took place when her former husband, receiving large dividends from his profit corporative rights, paid miserable child maintenance (100 UAH per month). Lawyer of UHHRU and M’ART has established to satisfaction of the Supreme Court that dividendsare the type of incomes,from which alimony must be recovered.
This case has a great importance for thousands of mothers in the similar situation, and for the further judicial practice in the category of such cases:
Supreme Court agrees with UHHRU lawyer on child maintenance
Case of Pashuk v. Ukraine
Woman, who works as a teacher, appealed to UHHRU. She complained aboutfailure of consummated judicial decision concerning non-payment to her the outstanding money by the Department ofEducation of the Chernihiv City Council(supplementary payment for number of years served, as well as assistance towards health restoration).
The Department of Education informed the woman that according to the Article 2 of Law «On restructuring of debt on payments envisaged by Article57 of the Law of Ukraine «On education» to educational, academic-educational and other categories of employees in educational institutions» such debts are paid from the State Budget of Ukraine. By the way, the letter stated that there wasn’t relevant receipt of funds to the local Budget.
After that, the state executor decreed about the determination of execution proceeding.
Pashuk approached the European Court of Human Rights. The UHHRU lawyer Ivan Tkach represented her interests there. The Court decision recognized the violations of Paragraph 1 of Article 6 of Convention and Article 1 of the First Protocol:
Ukrainian)
- Informing about human rights violations
Human rights researches and reports
Annual Report of human rights organizations “Human Rights in Ukraine”
On July 30 2008 UHHRU held the round table dedicated to the presentation of the human rights organizations Report “Human Rights in Ukraine − 2007”. This even was supported by the Committee of human rights and fundamental freedoms of the National Commission on strengthening democracy and rule of law and with the participation of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. 35 organizations from most of Ukrainian regions were involved in the process of report creation, which UHHRU publish every year, the Report consists of 22 chapters, among which “The Right to Life”, “Freedom from torture and ill-treatment”, “The Right of access to information”, “The Right to a fair trial”, “Socio-economic rights” and other. Report contains the overview and analysis of the cases of rights and freedoms violations, evaluation of legislation changelings, and recommendation to the state authorities with aim of situation improvement. This Report is the main source for the assessment of situation with human rights in Ukraine.