Support for its victims means putting an end to torture
Press Announcement: 26 June is International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
Monday 25 June 2007 Joint press conference organized by the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group and the International Womens Rights Centre “La Strada – Ukraine”
The Use of Torture in Ukraine by Officials
Topics for discussion:
- The prevalence of torture and ill-treatment in Ukraine
- Assessment of Ukraines compliance with international standards on the prohibition of torture: the view of the UN Committee against Torture;
- Torture of prisoners
- Brutal beatings of prisoners by special forces units in 2007;
- The work of the Professional Aid to Victims of Torture Fund;
- Prevention of torture: Action plan for the future
Participants:
Yevhen Zakharov, Co-Chair of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group and Head of the Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, member of the Board of the International “Memorial” Society
Kateryna Levchenko, President of the International Womens Rights Centre “La Strada – Ukraine”; National Deputy
Oleh Martynenko, Advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs on Human Rights and Gender Issues, Police Colonel
Victims of torture
On 8 – 9 May the UN Committee against Torture reviewed the Ukrainian Governments Fifth Periodic Report on its implementation of the UN Convention against Torture, and on 18 May presented conclusions of its review.
Journalists will have a chance to hear about the Committees recommendation; receive an overview of the situation with torture in Ukraine; learn the Ministry of Internal Affairs position on this issue; as well as a civic assessment of the situation with torture within the penal institutions of the Department for the Execution of Sentences.
They will also hear the accounts of actual victims of torture.
Please see the following for more information about the issue of torture and the campaign run by KHPG in cooperation with regional human rights groups.
For example: http://khpg.org/en/index.php?r=a2b6
The KHPG Alternative Report to the Committee against Torture, presented on 8 May, can be found at: http://khpg.org/en/1177303638
Journalists and all concerned members of the public are cordially invited
25 June at 12.30 at the UNIAN Press Agency, No. 4, Khreshchatyk (St), Kyiv