The Crimean Field Mission on Human Rights considers it essential to ensure the maximum international presence in Crimea of institutions, special procedures and independent experts of the OSCE, the UN and the Council of Europe, whose mandate is to protect human rights, to monitor and assess the human rights situation in the Crimean Peninsula

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has awarded its annual Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize to veteran Russian activist Lyudmila Alekseyeva.

A number of human rights organizations including the Kharkiv Human Rights Group have addressed an open appeal to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asking him to extend the timeframe to enable vital public participation

Human Rights Watch’s allegations of widespread use by the Ukrainian government of cluster bombs have been widely reported, unlike the OSCE’s denial of any evidence of this and other serious grounds for concern about the report

The latest report by the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights documents how armed groups in eastern Ukraine “continue to abduct, detain, torture and execute people kept as hostages in order to intimidate and “to exercise their power over the population in raw and brutal ways.”

Other human rights problems include abuse of persons in custody, an inefficient and corrupt judicial system; arbitrary and lengthy pretrial detention; inadequate provisions for asylum seekers; pervasive corruption and government pressure on NGOs

Plans, initiated by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, are underway to create a Human Rights House in Kyiv. At present money is being raised and an appropriate building sought.

The authors of Human Rights in Ukraine – 2012. note that the Prosecutor’s Office, the Interior Ministry, SBU and tax bodies continue to be used as weapons of repression against the opposition and civic movements

Each of us can become a victim of the state and in today’s Ukraine nobody can guarantee that his or her rights will not be violated. However the situation is not hopeless and there are mechanisms for defending a person the Head of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, Yevhen Zakharov says

Other laureates of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union’s annual anti-award for worst human rights offenders in 2012 include the Central Election Committee and President Yanukovych and Parliamentary Speaker Lytvyn

Before Human Rights Day on 10 December a UHHRU panel of judges must choose the worst violators of human rights in Ukraine during 2012 for the ignominious Thistle of the Year award. The list of candidates is formidable, the competition fierce

NGO shadow reports paint a very different picture from that presented in Geneva in the Government’s Report for Ukraine’s Universal Periodic Review on 24 October

In September, as part of the campaign “Human Rights in Ukraine: Your Vote is Important”, Ukrainians were asked which rights are most often violated in Ukraine

On 24 October Ukraine is due to present the government’s report for the four-yearly Universal Periodic Review. This UN Human Rights Council has also received 12 shadow reports from Ukrainian NGOs

The Foreign Ministry informs that its Public Council attached to the Interior Ministry, together with the OSCE Project Coordinator are drawing up a project aimed at engaging institutions of civil society in ffulfilling OSCE aims during Ukraine’ chairmanship of the OSCE

A new report released by Freedom House on 5 July finds a persistent decline in democratic principles and human rights in Ukraine, a development which is especially worrying in light of the country’s upcoming parliamentary elections in October 2012

NGOs call on Ukraine’s leaders to make access to public information, freedom of association, freedom of peaceful assembly and protection from torture priorities of Ukraine’s OSCE presidency.

On 16 June Kharkiv residents as well as visitors to the city had the opportunity to see the “Human Rights Offside” Exhibition, timed to coincide with the Euro 2012 Championship.

A cordial invitation to the opening at 10.00 Friday, 8 June 2012 of the “Human Rights Offside” Exhibition, timed to coincide with the Euro 2012 Championship

A human rights exhibition entitled “Human Rights Offside” is to be held to mark the Euro 2012 Championship. It will present an overview of infringements of fundamental human rights in Ukraine over the last two years