Know-how from “beloved friends” – repressive lawsuits against human rights organizations

The Vinnytsia city public organization “Vinnytsia Human Rights Group” announces that a lawsuit has been filed against it in civil court proceedings by the Stryzhavka Correctional Colony of the administration of the State Department of Ukraine for the Execution of Punishments in the Vinnytsia region (No. 81).

Am I awaited in freedom?

When one of the convicts said during a meeting, ‘That’s it, this is my final stretch’, the guys from the Kherson public organisation ‘Men Against Violence’ were simply shocked. Yes, they had come to the colony to help these people return to society, but they were well aware of how heavy a burden they had placed upon their own shoulders.

Third Place for “the Ninetieth”.

This year, the enterprises of forty-six correctional colonies (CC) of Ukraine participated in a competition for the best production organization in the penitentiary system. And Northern CC No. 90, which is located in Kherson, took third place.

Projects are over; long live... projects.

The OSCE, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Denmark, funded projects for non-governmental organisations in five regions of Ukraine: Kirovohrad, Lviv, Luhansk, Khmelnytskyi, and Kherson.

A COMPETITION IS BEING HELD

The international organization with consultative status (Category II) at the UN and the Council of Europe, “Penal Reform International”, jointly with the Centre for Legal Assistance to the Population “Public Defender”, announces a competition for participation in the programme “Development of the System of Public Control in Ukraine”.

The Lukyanivske Pre-trial Detention Centre could relocate outside of Kyiv within 2–3 years.

This is only possible if the state allocates sufficient funds.

President pardons 56 convicts

27 convicts released from places of deprivation of liberty

Death of a prisoner in Vinnitsa Correctional Colony No. 86

According to human rights activists, for three days following the prisoner’s death, attempts were made to conceal the fact of the incident from the public, just as in the case of two suicides that occurred in June of this year in the Stryzhavka Correctional Colony No. 81.

Number of prisoners in member states of the Council of Europe as of 1 September 2006.

Colonies must be open to public scrutiny!

Only transparency can create a more or less realistic picture of the state of affairs in the colonies. If the Department continues to resist all forms of public oversight, society will have, instead of a truthful picture, a mixture of the Department’s glossy reports and frightening, not always accurate, reports from prisoners. As a result, everyone will lose.

STRIZHAVKA CONVICTS WANT TO SUE... A HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER

There was no self-mutilation in the zone. The convicts themselves refute the information disseminated by the Vinnitsa Human Rights Group.

130–135 PEOPLE DIE IN UKRAINIAN PRE-TRIAL DETENTION CENTRES EVERY YEAR

Nina Karpachova, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, believes that the prosecutor’s office is acting ineffectively in preventing and investigating incidents of torture by police officers and the State Department for the Execution of Sentences.