On 3 September on the premises of the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights the representatives of the Ombudsman, of the civil society organizations and of the government discussed the content of national reports on compliance by Ukraine with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the coordination efforts of human rights organizations and the office of the Commissioner for the preparation and submission of information to the Committee Against Torture.

 

In October 2013 the Ministry of Justice prepared the National Report, but due to the political events that took place in the country, the report did not go through public discussion. The representatives of human rights organizations shared their comments on the content of the National Report of Ukraine, in particular, noting that the references to the state programs on the problems related to torture and ill-treatment do not constitute evidence of effective improvements in this sphere. Several comments were also made regarding the lack of relevant statistics on the reporting period.

 

Human rights defenders and the Ombudsman may raise these and other issues in their reports submitted to the Committee by 17 October 2014. In particular, Yevhen Zakharov, director of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, presented an alternative report, which includes KHPG's comments to the National Report of Ukraine, to the participants of the event. Mr. Zakharov said that at the beginning of October the statistics in the group's comments will be updated and in mid-October Kharkiv Human Rights Group plans to present their final alternative report, which shall be sent to the Committee. The Center for Civil Liberties and the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union expressed their willingness to participate in this work.

 

The Ombudsman for her part also plans to prepare a separate report on the implementation by Ukraine of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

 

The participants agreed that the alternative reports should contain specific and clear recommendations on the necessary and urgent measures to combat torture and ill-treatment in Ukraine and cannot omit the events of late 2013 and early 2014, which require a true and objective coverage.