Separatists in Eastern Ukraine grossly violate human rights

Authorities and activists of the so-called People's Republic of Donetsk grossly and systematically violate human rights. This is one of the conclusions of a mission of Memorial Human Rights Centre that worked in Ukraine in May 2014 in cooperation with the Civic Solidarity Platform.

The referendum of May 11, 2014 cannot be considered legitimate, the report says. The methods used rule out the possibility of reliably determining its results.

Ukrainian authorities must urgently restore order within their internal power structures in order to completely eliminate the possibility of dispatching too few and poorly equipped fighters in places where they may clash with hostile civilians, recommendations of the mission say.

The Ukrainian authorities are obliged to suppress the activities of all illegal armed groups, including those positioning themselves as defenders of Ukrainian statehood. Self-appointed militias supporting Ukrainian statehood can cause just as much damage as the activity of separatists.

Full text of the report can be found below:

csp_mission_to_the_east_of_ukraine_eng.doc

Talk about this story

More from Ukraine

Dear colleagues, partners and friends, Thank you for your support in 2022. Looking back to the challenges of this year, we feel incredibly grateful to work together with CSP member organizations and external partners.

On Wednesday, 30 November 2022 in Łódź Civic Solidarity Platform representatives presented the Conference outcome document, a Declaration to the OSCE Chair-in-Office, Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau and his colleagues H.E.

The OSCE Parallel Civil Society Conference 2022 took place on Wednesday, 30 November 2022 in Łódź, on the eve of the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting. As in previous years, the Parallel Conference is organized by the OSCE-wide NGO network, the Civic Solidarity Platform (CSP), with the support of the Polish OSCE Chairpersonship 2022.