The Constitution of Ukraine guarantees each person the right to freedom of assembly, without weapons and hold meetings, rallies, walks and demonstrations.

The same guaranteed are enshrined in Article 11 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which is part of the national legislation of Ukraine.

Yet, in the early morning of 30 November 2013 police, having used brutal force have stopped a peaceful demonstration. Video-recordings of those events available in open access testify to the excessive use of force by the police.

Therefore, at her own initiative, the Ombudsperson of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has opened a case regarding human rights violation based on information disseminated by the mass media as to the events on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv in early morning of 30 November 2013.

The goal of the case opened is to initiate a relevant investigation by the Office of the Prosecutor General as to lawfulness of the actions undertaken by the police, use of riot gear, detention of persons and their transfer to police stations, as well as to make sure that such investigation is made transparent and effective and to make sure that the community is informed of the sanctions against those, who had broken the law.

In this connection, since use of riot gear is necessarily reviewed both in the wider context and in each individual case, I call onto those, who consider themselves victims of excessive police force use on 30 November 2013 to appeal to the Ombudsperson. Appeals are accepted through any convenient means, including the e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , and at the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ombudsmanUA. The open office of the Ombudsperson is ready to accept such claims starting Monday, 2 December from 9:00 a.m. at 21/8 Instytutska St., Kyiv.

 

Apart from that, I once more call onto the Members of Parliament of Ukraine to consider and adopt a law on peaceful assembly, as stipulated by the already second decision of the European Court of Human Rights, which would envisage clear rules for all participants of peaceful assemblies and – especially – for the police force. This legislation, inter alia, has to provide for a comprehensive list of legitimate grounds for interference with peaceful assembly and to introduce stringent rules for use of riot gear in the course of peaceful assembly termination.