I am representing the civil initiative Euromaidan SOS that was created in response to the brutal actions by authorities while dispersing a peaceful student protest in November 2013. At that time we united to provide free legal aid to the students. We didn't expect hundreds and hundreds of people who had been arrested, beaten, subjected to torture, accused on trumped-up criminal charges across Ukraine and the relatives of missing and killed protesters to pass through our doors. It only became possible when thousands of ordinary people and several hundred lawyers worked around the clock and joined our initiative.
We were compelled to change the methods of our activities in February 2014. From the 18 – 20 February there were many messages to our hotline saying that unarmed protesters were being shot on the Maidan (central square in the capital, Kiev). Our volunteers went to the temples, mortuaries and the other places that the victims were being brought. We wanted to write down the names of those who had been killed by Victor Yanukovych's regime as we didn't know what could happen to us tomorrow.
We were reoriented on documenting crimes and we continue to be engaged in this activity after the Revolution of Dignity. After collapse of the authoritarian regime and in order to stop democratic transformations in Ukraine, Russia occupied the Crimea and unleashed hybrid war in Donbas. Officially more than eight thousand people, seven thousand of whom were peaceful civilians, have lost their lives. Tens of thousands have been wounded and approximately two million have been forced to leave their homes.
Murder, abduction, torture, sexual violence, the use of the civilian population as 'human shields', politically motivated prosecutions in occupied territories – all of this has become our daily reality. In parallel, we also have to fight to implement reforms within the spheres of the police, the courts and the prosecutor's offices in order to prevent the Ukrainian authorities from shooting unarmed protesters.
In this regard, I would like to share these lessons that have been learnt due to these events:
1. In many countries around the world human rights activists do not work in the sphere of human rights protection. Human rights activists fight every day for human rights. Often it seems almost hopeless. However, we should do our work honestly. The results of our efforts can sometimes be achieved unexpectedly.
2. When people achieve the recognition of human rights and freedoms from authorities, often in practice it means only the one thing. Civil society needs to be reinforced to monitor the freedom of association, the right to a fair trial, civil society oversight of police etc. Therefore, these human rights activists have simply won new tasks for themselves.
3. Destiny never sends us difficulties that we cannot overcome. We do not choose the time when we come to this world nor the country we are born into. However, we always have a choice – to be decent people or to be scoundrels.
Murder, abduction, torture, sexual violence, the use of the civilian population as 'human shields', politically motivated prosecutions in occupied territories – all of this has become our daily reality.
