The report “The Price of Freedom” has been produced and published by human rights organisations in the Coalition of Public Organizations and Initiatives for Combating Impunity of Crimes against Humanity.

During the year, human rights organizations and initiatives have been documenting and systemizing information about crimes against humanity committed during Euromaidan. In January, the document prepared in joint efforts was submitted to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

In the submission, a large number of video and photo evidence on crimes by the law enforcement and paramilitary groups, the so-called titushky, serves to prove that perpetrators were confident in their absolute impunity.

Oleksandra Matviychuk speaking at a joint civil society press conference organised by the Human Rights House Network on 30 January 2014 at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France.“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”, said 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.

Pavlo Dykan, a representative of the Group of lawyers of the families of the Heavenly Hundred, described the results of national investigation as unsatisfactory: only five cases reached the trial stage, and only one trial is finished. “Key shortcomings of the investigation include lengthy and inadequate organization of the investigation, lack of the law enforcement system reform, systemic resistance to investigation by officials of the Ministry of Interior (MoI), destruction of evidence in the MoI system, insufficient material support for the investigation the lack of technical resources, and problems with expert examinations (lack of funding and qualified experts) ”, said the lawyer. According to him, the impunity of perpetrators has a negative impact on the willingness of law enforcement officials to testify.


International Criminal Court investigation needed

Now, human rights defenders place hopes on the International Criminal Court. The Court adheres to the principle of complementarity in its work, which means it only interferes where national law enforcement bodies are unwilling or unable to investigate the said crimes and prosecute the perpetrators in court.

Tetyana Pechonchyk’s picture for the Human Rights House Network portraits of women human rights defenders “We hope that the International Criminal 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”, stated Tetyana Pechonchyk, the Chair of the Board of the Human Rights Information Center, another member of the Human Rights House Kyiv.

To prevent crimes of this kind from happening again, the experts are urging Verkhovna Rada (the Parliament of Ukraine) to ratify the Rome Statute signed by Ukraine back in 2000. “It serves as a safeguard against impunity. Becoming a member state of the ICC is the only way to secure justice for victims of grave crimes, including war crimes in Donbas”, added Tetyana Pechonchyk.

The Human Rights House Network (HRHN) has repeatedly called upon the referal to ICC in regard to the crimes committed in Ukraine:

  • In May 2014, we underlined the impossibilty for the Ukrainian judiciary to efficiently investigate the issue and hence called upon an investigation by the ICC;
  • On 26 June 2014, HRHN member NGOs wrote a joint letter in this regard to President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine, calling upon him to to extend the mandate of the International Criminal Court investigations (taking into account events in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine) and to ratify the Rome Statute, in order to encourage such investigations, as an essential part of bringing peace to the country; 
  • HRHN’s secretariat, the Human Rights House Foundation repeated the call at the United Nations Human Rights Council in September 2014;

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