Ukrainian law students and young lawyers are reporting for JURIST on national and international developments in and affecting Ukraine. This dispatch is from Anna Balabina, a law student at Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv.
Last week the Norweigan Nobel Committee awarded its annual Peace Prize to human rights defenders from three countries – Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. The winners were the Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties, the Belarusian human rights defender and political prisoner Oles Bilyatsky from the Vyasna Center and the Russian human rights society “Memorial”.
In Ukraine, this decision caused both joy for Ukrainian human rights defenders and irritation and criticism due to the Committee’s decision to simultaneously award representatives of three countries in the year of Russia’s direct attack on Ukraine, as well as Belarus’ indirect participation in this attack. “The Nobel Committee clearly has an interesting understanding of the word ‘peace’ if the Nobel Prize is jointly awarded to representatives of two countries that attacked a third,” said Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak.
The Nobel Prize Committee, on the other hand, explained that the laureates represent civil society in their countries, supporting peace and democracy. “For many years, they promoted the right to criticize the government and protect the basic rights of citizens. They have made significant efforts to document war crimes, human rights abuses and abuses of power,” the Committee said in its statement.
Ukrainian winner
The Center for Civil Liberties was founded in Kyiv in 2007 to promote human rights and democracy in Ukraine. The organization is headed by human rights activist Oleksandra Matviychuk. The center works to strengthen Ukrainian civil society and put pressure on the authorities to make the country a full-fledged democracy. The organization actively advocates joining the International Criminal Court. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the organization became involved in identifying and documenting Russian war crimes against Ukrainian civilians. “In cooperation with international partners, the center plays an innovative role in bringing perpetrators to justice for crimes committed,” the committee noted. To date, Matviychuk’s team has documented 18,000 war crime episodes.
Since 2014, people have been telling Ukrainian human rights defenders very scary stories: that they were beaten, raped, stuffed in wooden boxes, electric currents were passed through their genitals, they were forced to write with their own blood, and their closest relatives were tortured in front of them. One woman told how they tried to take her eye out with a spoon. Another victim was constantly recalling the sound of scotch tape because where he was held, people were first wrapped in scotch tape and then beaten. After February 24, the number of such stories simply skyrocketed. In particular, there are many cases of gender-based violence. First of all, we are talking about sexual violence in various forms – not only rape but also public undressing and threats to rape.
“For a moment, you understand that people are telling you this in the hope that justice exists, at least delayed in time. This is very binding because people expect something from you. You’re not a historian; you’re not documenting this for the national archives” said Oleksandra Matviychuk in her interview with hromadske.ua.
For now, Ukraine’s law enforcement system is already overloaded with war crimes, and the International Criminal Court will focus on investigating only a few cases in the future. Therefore, the Center for Civil Liberties, together with Ukrainian human rights activists, is promoting the initiative of creating a special tribunal for Putin and Russian war criminals.
