60 Members of the European Parliament from 16 EU countries and 5 different political groups have signed an open letter calling upon EU governments to boycott the FIFA World Cup 2018, which is planned to be held in Russia. The letter was...
Volodymyr Balukh, the Crimean activist who flew the Ukrainian flag over his house in Russian-occupied Crimea, has gone on a termless hunger strike. The Crimean farmer whom the Russian occupation authorities in Crimea accused of storing...
It is an unfortunate fact that many governments misuse anti-terrorism laws against human rights defenders. Yet, the extent to which these laws are applied by the Russian Federation against those guarding human rights in Crimea has reached...
On 16 February 2017, the Supreme Court of occupied Crimea sentenced Ukrainian taxi driver Andriy Zakhtey to six and a half years in jail. He was accused of aiding supposed Ukrainian “saboteurs” who Russia’s FSB said had planned to...
Sanctions and high-profile negotiators are the most effective tools for the release of Ukrainians held hostage by the Kremlin. These are the findings of a study by media and legal experts from the Ukrainian Media Initiative for Human...
In 2014, a Russian judge found Stanislav Klykh guilty of fighting against Russian forces in the 1990s Chechen War. Russian human rights defender Zoya Svetova described the case as “one of the most insane and monstrously falsified...
On 16 January 2017, Volodymyr Balukh, the Crimean farmer who kept raising the Ukrainian flag above his house after Russia’s occupation of Crimea, was sentenced to three years and seven months in prison in a second trial which...
In December 2017, the Ukrainian civic initiative Euromaidan SOS awarded its annual Volunteer Prize to the Crimean Tatar activist Suleyman (Marlen) Asanov. Asanov is known for his altruistic support of the families targeted by the political...
The European Convention on Human Rights stipulates that everyone has the right to liberty and security of person and cannot be arbitrary arrested. Member states of the Council of Europe agreed to fulfil these and other legally binding...
On 23 November, Russian secret police (FSB) raided two cafes and a number of houses in Crimea’s capital, Simferopol, where they searched and detained several aged Crimean Tatars. 83-y.o. Vedzhie Kashka, a prominent figure in the history...
Free independent media is a necessary condition for democracy to function in any country. Censorship, on the other hand, is rampant in all its forms in dictatorships. These definitions may be relevant in a black and white world; in...
