In the closing days before vacations, the people’s deputies tried to enact through the parliament a whole chain of repressive standards. Among them are the presidential bills No. 6674 and No. 6675, which were brought to replace the scandal laws on e-declaration for anti-corruption activists, and present an undisguised attack on the freedom of association; bill No. 6688 registered by the people’s deputies from the Committee on National Security and Defense, which introduces the Russian practice of intelligence services in blocking access to information resources without a court order, to counteract the threats to national security in the information sphere.
Last week, we also witnessed the attempts to manipulate the parliamentary apparatus to represent the results of voting for the procedure of election of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights. It is still unknown what text of the bill will be signed by the Chairman of the Parliament Andriy Parubiy. Obvious is the attempt of certain political forces to politicize the post of ombudsman for the sake of their party interests.
All this is happening against the backdrop of a targeted campaign of discrediting the civil society, to which the Ukrainian intelligence service is likely to be involved. First of all it concerns the reformers – representatives of civil society, politicians, and government officials. This situation is rather disturbing and has already caused an appropriate official reaction at the June session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
On July 18, 09:30 a.m., in the premises of the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center (2, Khreschatyk St.) a press conference “Three Years After Maidan: Alarm Bells for Human Rights” will take place. The participants of the Human Rights Monitoring Platform will outline the alarming tendencies in the development of legislation and practices that challenge the protection of human rights in Ukraine.
Speakers:
- Oleksandra Matvichuk, Chair of the Board of Center for Civil Liberties
- Lyudmyla Kozlovska, President of the Open Dialog Foundation
- Oksana Pokalchuk, Executive Director of Amnesty International Ukraine
- Arkadiy Bushchenko, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union
For additional information, please contact Marina Lilichenko, Center for Civil Liberties +38066 8183513 [email protected]
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The Human Rights Monitoring Platform is an informal coalition of human rights organizations working in the field of monitoring, analyzing and drafting legislation in line with the basic principles of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Platform participants are the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, Center for Civil Liberties, Amnesty International Ukraine, Human Rights Information Center, Center of Law Enforcement Activities Research, “No Borders” Project, NGO “Social Action Center”, and Euromaidan SOS. The Center for Civil Liberties will coordinate the work of the Platform. Contacts for communication: [email protected]