Section: Human Rights Watch (USA)
Harsh Winter Ahead in Eastern Ukraine
Security officials from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) visited the offices of People in Need, one of the two international aid groups still operating in the separatist-held areas of eastern Ukraine last week. People in Need has been providing food and other basic goods and has helped to repair homes damaged during...
Raw Fear in Separatist-Controlled Donetsk
November was unseasonably warm this year in Donetsk, an eastern Ukrainian city under pro-Russian separatists’ control. As you walk down Pushkin Boulevard, watching golden leaves gently drop to the ground, stop by a fancy coffee wagon and inhale the autumn aromas mixed with the intoxicating smell of freshly ground coffee beans; it’s...
Crimean Tatar Elected Body Banned in Russia
Today, Russia’s Supreme Court confirmed a lower court ruling declaring Mejlis, a Crimean Tatar elected representative body, an extremist organization and banned its activities in Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea. The decision is outrageous but not surprising: Human Rights Watch has documented a steady curtailing of basic freedoms in...
Philippa H Stewart
Philippa Stewart is a Senior Media Officer at Human Rights Watch, and before that see was a journalist working in Ukraine and the UK. She has also reported from Mongolia, Qatar, and Afgahnistan. Her primary interests are press freedom and media responsibility, and women’s rights in post-conflict society. …read more Source: Human...
Joint HRW and AI Letter to Anatoly Matios
To: Chief Military Prosecutor, Anatoly Matios Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, Riznitska St, 13/15, Kyiv, Ukraine Cc: Chief of SBU, President’s Office, Ombudsperson for Ukraine From: John Dalhuisen, Director for Europe and Central Asia Regional Office, Amnesty International Rachel Denber, Deputy director for Europe and Central...
Ukraine: New Research Corroborates Secret Detentions
(Berlin) – New information has corroborated allegations of enforced disappearances and secret detention by Ukraine’s security services, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said in a joint letter to Ukraine’s military prosecutor. The new information indicates that at least five victims of enforced disappearances remain in...
Crimean Tatar Activist Confined in Psychiatric Hospital
(Berlin) – A Crimean Tatar activist has been involuntarily confined since August 18, 2016, in a psychiatric hospital, Human Rights Watch said today. The de-facto Russian authorities of Crimea should release the activist, llmi Umerov, drop criminal separatism charges against him, and ensure that he receives the medical care he requires. Umerov,...
Email Hack Leads to Threats Against Journalists in Ukraine
Journalists in Ukraine, especially those covering the armed conflict in the east, often put their safety on the line to get their stories out. But in recent months their job became even riskier, and not because of bullets and mortar fire. They are increasingly a target for Ukrainian nationalist groups that enjoy the explicit support of some...
New Confirmation of Secret Detention Allegations in Ukraine
Last week Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch published a joint report documenting incommunicado and secret detention of civilians by the warring sides in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Among the places we noted where civilians had been held in secret detention was Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) compound in Kharkiv. Before...
They Do Exist
Kostyantyn Beskorovayny spent 15 months jailed secretly by the Ukrainian Security Services (SBU). An active member of the Communist party in the small eastern town of Kostyantynivka, he was no supporter of Ukraine’s government- but not a “separatist” either. He worked as a dentist at a local hospital until Nov. 2014, when Ukrainian...
