At the initiative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, an International Advisory Panel was established in April 2014. Its role was to oversee that the investigations into the violent incidents, which occurred as of 30 November 2013 in Ukraine, in relation to the Euromaidan, met the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights and relevant caselaw.

On Tuesday, 31 March 2015, the panel chaired by Nicolas Bratza, former President of the European Court of Human Rights, released its report on its investigations and concluded that the investigations had failed to reach European standards.

International Advisory Panel of the Council of Europe, with its Chairperson Nicolas Bratza at the centre, at a press conference presenting its findings on 31 March 2015 in Kiev.

According to the report, between 78 and 92 protesters were killed. More than 1’000 were injured. 13 law enforcement officers were killed and about 900 injured.

In its report, the Panel underlines the substantial challenges Ukraine is under and acknowledged them, including the lack of investigation and securing of documentation by the previous authorities led by then President Viktor Yanukovych in the first three months of the Euromaidan. As underlined by the Panel in its report, during the three months of the demonstrations, “there was [prior to 22 February 2014] no genuine attempt to pursue investigations.” As stated at a press briefing in Kiev on 31 March 2015, by Nicolas Bratza, however, “these challenges could not excuse any failings which did not inevitably flow from them.”

The Human Rights House Network (HRHN), along many other non-governmental actors, governmental actors and many Ukrainian voices, repeatedly called upon the authorities in Ukraine to ensure an independent and effective investigation into the Euromaidan related violence. The Panel echoed that the lack of initiative in this regard is deplorable:

Despite the numerous calls which had been made to introduce an independent and effective mechanism within Ukraine for investigating crimes committed by law enforcement officers, there were several examples of a lack of practical independence in the Maidan investigations. In particular, the Ministry of the Interior had been given an investigative role in crimes which had undeniably been committed by law enforcement officers and had been allocated the investigation of crimes allegedly committed by the so-called ‘titushky,’ despite the undisputed evidence that ‘titushky’ had been engaged, supported, and armed by former officials of the Ministry.

HRHN has repeatedly called upon the referral to the International Criminal Court, due to the lack of capacity of national authorities to ensure an independent and effective investigation. As underlined by Tetyana Pechonchyk, the Chair of the Board of the Human Rights Information Centre, a member of the Human Rights House Kyiv, “we hope that the Court will open a full investigation into the Euromaidan case after examining the submission. We also hope that investigation of crimes committed by Viktor Yanukovych and high-level officials of the former authoritarian regime will be in the hands of international justice.” An international independent investigation might very well be the only way to face what Nicolas Bratza called “a very real problem of impunity and lack of accountability of law enforcement officers in Ukraine, which had over several years been the subject of serious criticism by the European Court, as well as by international governmental and non-governmental authorities.”

When presenting the NGO report “The Price of Freedom” Oleksandra Matviychuk, Chair of the Board, Center for Civil Liberties, one of the members of the Human Rights House Kyiv, coordinator of Euromaidan-SOS public initiative stated  “We have dealt with a widespread and systematic attack on civilian population with a clear aim to intimidate people and suppress the peaceful protest. Therefore, anyone could become a victim if perceived by the authorities as Euromaidan participant. These acts constitute crimes against humanity: they are systematic, well organized and committed over a short period of time on a large territory of Ukraine.”

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