today 25.05.2013 17:05
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Human Rights in Ukraine Information website of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group |
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The District Administrative Court in Kyiv banned the march on application from the Kyiv City State Administration. The ban officially covers all but official events on 25 May, though clearly the target was the March for Equality. 
Throughout the country police and transport workers obstructed people trying to get to Kyiv for the Rise Ukraine opposition rally 
The government can’t get anything right. On Wednesday Prime Minister Azarov threw out women journalists trying through a totally peaceful protest to remind him that it could be his wife or daughter who gets attracked with the police watching on and doing nothing, as happened with their colleague Olha Snitsarchuk 
The Coalition for Combating Discrimination in Ukraine has issued a statement regarding attempts by the Kyiv City State Administration [KCSA] to secure a court ban on any events in the centre of Kyiv on 25 May 2013 
On Saturday afternoon Berkut riot police detained Oleksandr Danylyuk, the leader of Spilna Sprava [Common Cause] and four other activists from the movement. 
During 2012 the President’s Administration paid 100 thousand UAH to Tantalit - a firm believed to have links with the Yanukovych family - for renting an office for Viktor Yanukovych in the latter’s sumptuous residence at Mezhyhirya. 
Andriy Bohdanovych was fined over the same peaceful action for which Maxim Panov was jailed for 7 days. 
When freedom of peaceful assembly is coming under increasing assault, solidarity among representatives of civic society is especially vital. Solidarity does not by any means exclude pluralism of views. Recent statements from one quarter have forced the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union to issue a statement making this clear. 
In his analysis, Volodymyr Yavorsky notes that bans on peaceful assembly are becoming ever more frequent and all-purpose, prohibiting any meetings in a particular place or timeframe. The need for legal regulation is clear. It is just as clearly missing at present 
Vasyl Hatsko, Head of the Democratic Alliance Party and Maxim Panov, head of the Kyiv branch, are now at liberty having been jailed as administrative arrest over entirely peaceful protests 
During a protest against tree-felling on Dniprovodska St (Obolon region), police detained two protesters – well-known journalist Ihor Lutsenko and Vitaly Hruzynov 
Democratic Alliance activists who arrived at Mezhyhirya on Monday to protest over the jailing of two fellow-activists were attacked by “unidentified thugs” and subjected to rough treatment by a formidable continent of Berkut riot police. There are also reports of obstruction by traffic police 
The Democratic Alliance is demanding that Maxim Panov and Vasyl Hatsko be released and calling on Ukrainians to stand up for their rights 
It was bad enough that all peaceful actions for the last three years have been banned anywhere near the President’s estate at Mezhyhirya. Now peaceful protesters are being jailed . 
On the same day that the European Court of Human Rights urged Ukraine to sort out its legislation on peaceful assembly, further worrying reports are emerging about ongoing violations of this fundamental right. 
Given the ever-increasing number of peaceful protests banned by the authorities, Strasbourg’s judgement could not be more appropriate. The Court noted the “20-year legislative lacuna concerning freedom of peaceful assembly” and stressed the need for urgent reform 
The latest reason for banning a totally peaceful protest outside the estate which once belonged to the State but is now owned by an outfit closely associated with the President was an expected flood - on the very day of the protest ... 
While accusations that the police dispersed a protest outside the Prosecutor General’s Office on Monday are oversimplified, civic observers and Amnesty International are adamant that a blanket ban on any protests is disproportionate 
On Monday morning four prominent civic activists were “taken to the police station” though supposedly not detained as they attempted to take part in a peaceful protest in support of Vinnytsa Human Rights Group Coordinator Dmytro Groisman 
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