On 13-15 of May Vilnius hosted the final conference of the Human Rights House Network’s project "International Law in Advocacy. The Electronic Human Rights Education for Lawyers". The participants of this conference were the best lawyers and advocates from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine. During the year they were studying online, performing tasks, discussing the problems of legal protection on the forums and at the same time practicing their skills of applying the international standards into professional activities.

Over the last week the media has buzzed with reports of how in Luhansk, Zaporizhya, Dnipropetrovsk and other Ukrainian cities, the police and transport service have obstructed people from freely travelling to Kyiv.

The Without Borders Project has issued a statement in which it notes that the Equality March has been declared a human rights event demanding that members of Ukraine’s LGBT community are assured equal rights and opportunities. At the present time, its organizers are running up against threats from radical opponents, as well as problems agreeing a time and place for the march with the Kyiv City State Administration [KCSA].

Arkady Bushchenko, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union is one of the finalists for the legal prize awarded to the best lawyers of the year.

The State is not capable of ensuring proper education; socialization and rehabilitation for children in institutions and therefore many of those leaving school orphanages cannot adapt in society and quite often become potential candidates for adult institutions.

As part of the events linked with the Nationwide Legal Aid Day on 23 May 2013, a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday looked at issues and prospects for the development of pro bono in Ukraine.

UHHRU was informed of this by the Head of the Pardoning Department within the President’s Administration, I. Kozlov. The arguments given included the level of seriousness of the offence committed, as well as the fact that she had not served a large part of the sentence imposed.

They say that they have bad experience and warn that similar events took place in Belarus in 2011 with these leading to the effective dissolution of an independent bar in the country.

On Sunday 27 January 2013 a general meeting was held to form a Public Council attached to the Interior Ministry. This resulted in twenty five of the 35 representatives of civic institutions allowed to the meeting, among them a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union being elected.

Human rights organizations have on many occasions expressed concern regarding the political grounds for the criminal prosecution of former government officials. On 11 October the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv issued its verdict against Yulia Tymoshenko, sentencing her to seven years imprisonment over the signing of gas accords with Russia.

On 13 September 2011 three Kharkiv TV companies – ATN, Fora and ATVC – were simultaneously removed from air. All three are engaged in independent journalist activities and regularly broadcast criticism of the local authorities and various State bodies. The simultaneous silencing under various pretexts of these three TV companies makes it impossible to doubt the political commissioning of the move.