The human rights organization Amnesty International has noted the deterioration of the situation with human rights in Ukraine, both in government-controlled territory and the areas beyond Kyiv control in Donbas and Crimea.
“Sporadic low-scale fighting continued in eastern Ukraine with both sides violating the ceasefire agreement. Both the Ukrainian and pro-Russian separatist forces continued to enjoy impunity for violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes, such as torture. Authorities in Ukraine and the self-styled People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk conducted unlawful detention of individuals perceived to support the other side, including for use in prisoner exchanges,” the organization said in a report on the situation with human rights in the world in 2016/2017.
According to the organization, dozens more individuals were held secretly on SBU premises in Mariupol, Pokrovsk, Kramatorsk, Izium and Kharkiv, and possibly elsewhere. Some were eventually exchanged for prisoners held by the separatists.
The media on the territory under government control regularly faced infringements of their rights, Amnesty International said. “The media in Ukraine remained generally free, but a number of media outlets perceived as supporting pro-Russian or pro-separatist views and those particularly critical of the authorities faced harassment,” the report reads.
In particular, Amnesty International noted the TV channel Inter was threatened with closure repeatedly by the Interior Minister, while criminal proceedings were launched against Savik Shuster’s TV channel 3STV by the tax authorities, Shuster’s license was annulled, journalist Ruslan Katsaba was arrested, journalist Pavel Sheremet was killed, murderers of journalist Oles Buzyna hadn’t been found.
The situation with rights of the media in Crimea was considered separately in the report. It notes independent journalists were unable to work in Crimea, where the occupying Russian authorities continued to severely restrict the rights to freedom of expression, of association and of peaceful assembly. Crimean Tatars faced particular repression.
“The Russian authorities used allegations of possession of ‘extremist literature’ and of membership of the Islamist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir as a pretext for house searches of ethnic Crimean Tatars (predominantly Muslims) and arrests. At least 19 men were arrested as alleged members of Hizb ut-Tahrir,” the report reads.
