Around 2 thousand people received KHPG assistance during the Campaign against Torture and Ill-treatment

These figures were given on 9 January by the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group’s legal expert Arkady Bushchenko. He explained that the campaign had been initiated in 1996 by the KHPG Co-Chair Yevhen Zakharov. 40 complaints from Kharkiv residents alleging torture or ill-treatment are presently awaiting consideration in the European Court of Human Rights. More than 100 people have received free legal defence from KHPG in courts, and several thousand have received free consultations. Arkady Bushchenko also noted that the book published by KHPG on violence in the law enforcement agencies had changed the attitude to this issue among the higher management of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (for example, a system of mobile MIA groups has been created for preventing torture and other forms of abuse. Victoria Tiutiunnyk More information about the KHPG campaign can be found at: http://khpg.org/en/index.php?r=a2b6, as well as under torture and ill-treatment at www.khpg.org