Given that a Public Council attached to the MIA already exists, the website Zakhid.net asked its Co-Chair, Yevhen Zakharov from the Kharkiv Human Rights Group for his comments

At a press conference on Wednesday, 21 April, human rights defenders reported on the return of the three Ukrainians from the Odessa region who spent nine months held in captivity in the Trans-Dniester

The above makes it clear that the policy being carried out in the police force has little in common with the policy of the European police, and human rights are of ever less interest to the law enforcement bodies. In this case, there can be no question of reforms.

With respect to the task of uniting the country, the new regime is behaving like an elephant in a china shop. The author shows that their prowess in defending human rights also leaves much to be desired

Three Ukrainians - Ihor Koval, Roman Hotko and Yury Bondarenko - abducted last July from the Odessa region and held in a SIZO [remand unit] in Trans-Dniester have returned to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union expresses bemusement at the Minister’s insistence on reducing programmes to safeguard human rights despite the fact that even the President has called such action ill-considered

The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union has sent its Open Appeal regarding Government Policy on Human Rights to the President and Prime Minister, and eagerly awaits their response

Prosecutor appeals against the “rehabilitation” of Ihor Bakai

Given the numerous violations and demonstrations of contempt for human rights over the last month the question is legitimately asked whether these steps represent a lack of understanding of the importance of human rights, or whether they are a planned and conscious rejection of Ukrainian society’s democratic achievements

The entire Department for Monitoring Human Rights in the Work of the Police has been dissolved, and all Human Rights Advisors in the regions to the Minister have been dismissed

At the beginning of May 2005 Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs placed Ihor Bakai on the international wanted list. He was accused of abuse of his official position and exceeding his powers in his post of Head of the State Department of Affairs

The Ministry of Internal Affairs claims it is acting to enforce the President’s order on reducing the MIA central apparatus yet why cut an efficient structure which has helped combat rights abuse?

Open Appeal from Ukrainian Human Rights Organizations over apparent plans by the Minister of Internal Affairs Anatoly Mohylev to dissolve the Department for Monitoring Human Rights in the Work of the Police

Kirovske has been shaken by the death of 55-year-old Vera Kozlovska whose body was found on the road on 14 February and the dismissals of 5 police officers believed to be implicated in her death

Not only does ethnic profiling violate people’s rights and dignity, but it is also an inefficient method of protecting public order, wasting police resources while leaving many crimes unsolved

The Vinnytsa Human Rights Group has reported a visit from an officer of the Department for Fighting Organized Crime apparently to check the lawfulness of the group’s activities, including their circulation of statements which could harm Ukraine’s international image

A 36-year-old man has died in the Poltavsky [Poltava] Raion Police Station after being detained on suspicion of stealing a scooter

The presumption of innocence remains an illusion with the orientation from criminal investigation and Prosecutor’s Office bodies being totally on getting a conviction, not seldom without taking the actual facts into consideration

A comparative analysis of the results shows that in the period from 2003 there was a fall of about 400 thousand in the number of people experiencing blows and bodily injuries during detention

Lawyers representing Yury Beketov, a remand prisoner in the Kyiv SIZO have stated that their client has not been provided with medical care which, according to European Court of Human Rights case law, can be deemed a form of torture