Kyiv, 9 September 2015 – The Crimea Human Rights Field Mission issued a statement on changing the format of its work amid new threats and challenges.
Kyiv, 10 July 2015 – The Center for Civil Liberties and Euromaidan SOS initiative presented the second edition of the report "Crimea. Chronicles of Occupation" featuring a chronology of the political persecution of civil society in the occupied peninsula.
The Crimean Human Rights Field Mission and the Human Rights Information Centre introduce the overview of the situation of freedom of speech in Crimea as of May 2015.
Euromaidan SOS introduced a monthly report "Crimea. Chronicles of Occupation" with chronological description of arrests, attacks, interrogations, and fabricated court hearings. The first edition of the Chronicles presents a rather gloomy situation of residents of the peninsula who remained one-on-one with the occupation authorities in the spring.
Summarizing the interim results of monitoring transparency and freedom of speech, the Crimean Human Rights Field Mission states that there are signs of systematic work on the monopolization of information space, including through administrative pressure on independent media, on the peninsula.
7 May, Kyiv - The issue of illegal nationalization by self-proclaimed Crimean authorities and the Russian government was discussed at a roundtable on "Property and land issues in occupied Crimea: human rights deficit" with MP Heorhiy Lohvynskyy, Chairman of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov, and Crimea experts.
9 April, Kyiv – UNIAN news agency hosted a press conference on the topic "What can we do to protect freedom of speech in Crimea?" to discuss the situation for freedom of expression on the peninsula and the facts of pressure on the media. Representatives of human rights organizations and Ukrainian authorities told what is being done to counter the destruction of independent media in Crimea.
17 March 2015, Geneva – during the special event entitled "Situation of human rights in Ukraine" Ombudsperson and Ukrainian human rights advocates emphasized that a permanent international observation mission on human rights should work in Crimea to prevent further possible escalation of the conflict.
Join a twitter-storm "Crimea is Ukraine!" from 23 to 28 February. Add memories of Crimea. Use the hashtag #CrimeaisUkraine.
Attacks on the media in Crimea increase every month, limiting freedom of speech in several ways. This was announced by representatives of Ukrainian mass media, who continue to work in Crimea, at the press conference on 2 February 2015 in Kyiv.
30 January 2015, Kyiv - As announced at a press conference, human rights defenders use the term 'deportation' to describe Russian authorities' ban on entering Crimea for Crimean citizens of Ukraine. Mr. Ismet Yuksel and Mr. Refat Chubarov fell victims of such ban and were unable to return home to their family and friends without any legal justification.
29 January: Results of the monitoring and assessment of situation on the administrative service provision in Kherson region to the citizens of Ukraine living in Crimea were presented during the press-conference with participation of all state and local service-providing institutions in Kherson.
On 14 November, the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights hosted a discussion on the preparation of the National Strategy on Human Rights. The conversation was facilitated by the Ombudsperson of Ukraine, representatives of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UN agencies in Ukraine, and human rights organizations.
As announced at a press conference on 14 November, human rights groups asked the court to abolish unlawful provisions of the National Bank of Ukraine Decree №699 as of 03.11.2014 that discriminate against Ukrainian citizens residing or registered in Crimea. Currently, Crimeans have limited access to basic banking services, including opening of accounts, currency exchange, payments, etc.
On 5 November, diplomats, representatives of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and international experts on human rights gathered in Geneva to hear the assessment of Ukrainian human rights defenders of the human rights situation in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
On October 30-31 in Kyiv a training for lawyers and managers of Centers of Legal Information and Consultation that provide free legal aid with the support of UNDP and International Fund "Renaissance", as well as for the representatives of municipal authorities, where the participants told about their success, shared their experiences and received new knowledge and skills.
With tensions and mistrust growing in Ukraine, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged the international community to help the key actors calm the situation and work toward a durable and fair political solution, ahead of closed-door Security Council consultations on the crisis.