During the meeting, the UNDP-nurtured Coalition, comprising 17 Ukrainian human rights organizations, reviewed the achievements of the past year and defined its goals for 2016.

 

Since its inception in late 2014, the Coalition has gained recognition of Ukrainian and international partners. In cooperation with a wide range of governmental actors and international stakeholders, the Coalition works to improve access to justice and provide vital support to those most affected by the conflict, as well as promote peace and reconciliation.

 

Summing up annual accomplishments, Volodymyr Shcherbachenko, Head of the Eastern-Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives and Coordinator of the Coalition, highlighted the progress made in the Coalition's development and underlined the importance of its key principles – legality, impartiality and accuracy in data collection, focus on cooperation, and priority of the security of victims and witnesses.

 

Being primarily aimed at documenting facts and evidences of human rights violations and assisting national and international human rights mechanisms and institutions in investigation of the crimes related to the military conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the Coalition established such priorities for 2016:

- managing a database of human rights violations in Donbas,

- strengthening institutional support to the Coalition's member organisations,

- building effective cooperation with law enforcement bodies,

- advocating for human rights.

 

 

The initiative is supported by the Democratization, Human Rights and Civil Society Development Programme, implemented by UNDP Ukraine and funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, as well as by the International Renaissance Foundation.