The Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) of OSCE participating States is Europe's largest annual human rights and democracy conference. It is organized every year by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) as a platform for 57 OSCE participating States, Partners for Co-operation, OSCE structures, civil society, international organizations and other relevant actors to take stock of the implementation of the OSCE human dimension commitments, discuss associated challenges, share good practices, and make recommendations for further improvement.

 

The side event facilitated lively discussions on illegal detention in Donbas among representatives of different countries' governments, civil society, and international organizations. The Justice for Peace in Donbas coalition along with the Ombudsperson's Office presented the report "Surviving hell: testimonies of victims on places of illegal detention in Donbas" jointly prepared with Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (Poland).

 

This monitoring research of the Coalition presents the situation with the protection of the right to liberty (deprivation of liberty), right to life, and right not to be tortured or treated in an inhuman way. It features the collection of testimonies based on the facts that took place mainly in summer of 2014.

 

Ukrainian human rights activists presented the typical human rights violations occurred on the territories of Luhansk and Donetsk regions not controlled by Ukrainian government. The collection of victims' testimonies describes brutal violations of the right to liberty in detention places across the military conflict zone. Collected by civic activists, hundreds of cases of murders, tortures, unhuman treatment are supported by written or filmed evidences.

 

Three people who were in illegal captivity visited the side event to tell about the horrific torture that they had to endure. Participants were especially astonished by the story of Victoria, who was held in captivity with her husband for almost 100 days.

 

To ensure the documentation of human rights violations data and cases, the Justice for Peace in Donbas coalition used the professional data storage and tracking software, which was purchased and installed with UNDP support. The test version of the database is operational with over 120 cases of human rights violations documented and entered into the database. It will be used to seek humanitarian law remedies and redress (e.g., ECHR, IHL, domestic criminal and civil law cases) for victims, many of whom are IDPs and other vulnerable members of communities in Donbas.