“Systemic deficiencies in the functioning of the Ukrainian judicial system seriously hinder the enjoyment of human rights. The authorities should take resolute steps to better address these problems” | detail
A court in Kyiv on Tuesday has allowed an application to temporarily stop providing hosting for the website Dorozhny Kontrol - roadcontrol.org.ua - until a final ruling is issued. | detail
"Investigators try to obtain confessions from suspects even where they have irrefutable evidence of the crime, proving guilt…. It’s the Soviet school. Only after getting a confession do they send the case to the court" | detail
Inna Sukhorukova recounts another story of police impunity, involving a young man not only accused of a crime he didn’t commit, serious procedural irregularities and a court trial despite the defendant being recognized as mentally unfit to stand trial. | detail
On 8 February in the Budyonovsk District Police Station in Donetsk a young man died after being “invited to the station” to give testimony in a criminal investigation regarding a robbery. | detail
Yakiv Strogan has now been held in custody for almost 14 months in a case creating a number of highly dangerous precedents, and with clear signs of being aimed at warning people against speaking out against police torture | detail
Denis Kobzin and Andriy Chernousov from the Kharkiv Institute for Social Research write that the courts are not preventing the use of confessions obtained by unlawful methods. While there are many reasons, they say that the main cause is the degree of dependence of judges. | detail
On 3 February 2012 the Kyivsky District Court in Kharkiv overturned the decision to initiate a criminal investigation over alleged forging of documents confirming the status of former Chornobyl clean-up workers | detail
Oleksy Svyetikov from the Luhansk Regional Branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine reports a worrying increase in interference as well as downright unlawful behaviour by Luhansk police officers with respect to civic activists | detail
41% of the foreign nationals living in Kharkiv experienced some harassment on religious or racial / ethnic grounds in 2010/2011 | detail
The alarming trend towards an increase in deaths in police custody or penal institutions seen over the last two years is not letting up, with two young men dying in unclear circumstances just in the last week. | detail
Overt pressure on the enforcement bodies and increasing encroachments on the independence of the judiciary are a danger to everybody. Journalists would be well-advised to think hard about who they are serving through uncritical reporting such as that seen over the PrivatBank killings | detail
Following a report on his Facebook page by TVi journalist Konstyantin Usov, the State Penitentiary Service has issued a statement on its website regarding the death of a young man last night, 24 January. As can be seen below this diverges considerably from the journalist’s report | detail
The Association of Ukrainian Human Rights Monitors on Law Enforcement has compiled a harrowing report on death in police custody during 2011. Of the 35 deaths, 7 people hanged themselves, and 5 jumped from windows | detail
The police claim that criminal investigations are justified since "the acts involved flagrant infringements of public order, coupled with extraordinary cynicism, demonstrative disregard for generally accepted norms of morality and rules of behaviour in public places, damage to property, as well as undermining the President’s authority.” | detail
Forensic tests found that Mr Zvenigorodsky had died from a stomach injury, and that he had been beaten no later than 5 hours before his death, this meaning while in police custody | detail
The Ukrainian authorities must launch a fresh investigation into the death in custody of a student, Amnesty International said after two police officers suspected of responsibility for his death walked free following a court hearing in Kyiv | detail
Among other extended powers, the SBU is now responsible for investigating “mass disturbances” and crimes falling under "abuse of power" | detail
In Kyiv and Zhytomyr protests took place on Thursday evening over the announcement of a verdict in the case of the one police officer left facing charges over the death in police custody of young student Ihor Indylo | detail
Human Rights in Ukraine. Website of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group