Vladislav Hryhorovych Niedobora, the oldest member of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group died on 2 April. He was one of four people from Kharkiv sentenced for signing a letter deemed “anti-Soviet” in 1969

6 January 2007, Christmas Eve in the Orthodox tradition should have been the seventieth birthday of Vasyl Stus, poet, dissident thinker and Soviet political prisoner. He died in the Perm Labour Camp 22 years ago, on 4 September 1985

Your very life provides a wonderful example of commitment and total solidarity with those oppressed. In the countries of the former Soviet Union a desperate amount still needs to be done, and your example is one we must all follow

Petro Grigorenko’s son and "comrade in arms" in the human rights struggle speaks of his father, the present situation and his work now in highlighting human rights issues especially in Ukraine and Russia

While any person remains imprisoned in the countries of the former Soviet Union, this day should be not merely a day of remembrance, but one of active protest

“I don’t think that one person’s life can serve as an example for others. Each person must travel their own path. If what I relate can give anyone cause for reflection, I will consider that I did not work in vain”

16 October 2007 marks the centenary of the birth of Petro Grigorenko, Soviet General, friend and defender of the Crimean Tatars, founding member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, Moscow dissident and later voice for the Ukrainian dissident movement in the West

This world is held in place by people with conscience and a sense of justice, with gratitude and by those who remember. Today in the Crimea as well as beyond there are hundreds and hundreds of Petro Grigorenko’s friends

The words nineteen thirty seven for many, especially older people, are indelibly linked with the Terror. In the following interview Yevhen Zakharov speaks of its legacy, as well as some problems in Ukraine at the present time

Valery Marchenko “loved life and very much wanted to live. However allowing the KGB to destroy his body, he was not going to let them destroy the HUMAN BEING in him. Citizens of many countries have the privilege of being a human being from birth. Valery, together with other dissidents, had to fight for this “privilege”.

During the night between 3 and 4 September 1985, 22 years ago today, Vasyl Stus, Ukrainian poet, human rights activist and member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, died in a punishment cell in one of the Perm Labour Camps

On Independence Day, this interview given by Myroslav Marynovych seems an extraordinarily appropriate way to remember all those committed to a free Ukraine in which human rights and human dignity are paramount

The funeral took place today in Ivano-Frankivsk of the artist, laureate of the Shevchenko State Award and former political prisoner Opanas Zalyvakha

The death has been announced of the well-known artist Opanas Zalyvakha. He died in Ivano-Frankivsk in the early hours of 24 April 2007

Despite the response of the Verkhovna Rada, Viktor Yushchenko has issued a Decree instructing that measures be taken to honour the memory of the renowned human rights defender and one of the founders of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group Petro Grigorenko on the 100th anniversary of his birth

In Simferopol on 22 February, Viktor Yushchenko personally handed the award “For courage”, First class, to activist of the Crimean Tatar national movement and former dissident Ayshe Seitmuratova.

"The main thing is that in the school there is a memorial to Tykhy, a memory to the truth, memory to Ukraine, and that children see it every day. Those children are our future. Maybe their lives at least will be easier.”

On 18 January 2003 Serhiy Naboka, journalist, poet, dissident, former political prisoner and human rights defender, died suddenly in Vinnytsa near the prison where he had once been held. He had been preparing material about the treatment of prisoners in Ukrainian penal institutions

A harsh look at what has and has not changed, and at the bitter Soviet legacy of unquestioned obedience

"We are convinced that the moral principles which once compelled us to resist remain exceptionally important today also. This is first of all the intense love for Ukraine which guided our actions. We see the lack of this love today. It is secondly the love of truth which alone can set us free. This love of truth later brought us together on Maidan. And thirdly, it is the love of God who spoke to us in the prisons and labour camps in different ways – for some in religious language, for others secular – and people responded to that call.