Maidan

We are asking people in Ukraine, Russia and all countries of the world to help us raise awareness about Holodomor 1932-1933 in Ukraine. There is no question of presenting grievances against today’s Russia, nor of settling scores. It is a question of justice, of willingness to try to understand the past and to do all in our power to ensure that such a crime never happens again. Please help us by adding your voice to ours.

Ukrainians turn to Strasbourg because the courts in Ukraine all too often let them down. They seek justice at the European Court because Ukrainian politicians erode their confidence in their own justice system. It is surely therefore not surprising that so many Ukrainians have emphatically registered their opposition to Serhiy Holovaty, or any other Ukrainian politician, becoming Judge of this most important court.

The actions of the police which were directly controlled by the Minister during the conflict in the Prosecutor General’s office almost led to a confrontation between armed members of different enforcement agencies. The law enforcement agencies must examine these actions, however regardless of the results of their enquiry we would stress the inadmissibility of such provocative behaviour from the heads of enforcement bodies.

On 8 February 2005, civic society marked Nina Karpachova’s election to the post by launching a monitoring campaign aimed at making the work of the Human Rights Ombudsperson’s Secretariat more transparent and effective. The need for such scrutiny, given woefully inadequate work and heavily politicized behaviour, was – and remains – clear to all

The first phase of a project on ensuring the public’s right of access to information about the activities of the authorities carried out by the “Maidan” Alliance and the Civic Information and Methodology Centre “Vsesvit” [“Universe”] identified disturbing, if sometimes also absurd, discrepancies in how various State bodies interpreted the same norms of the Constitution and laws

Those who, like us, support the President fully in calling new elections believe that their democratic voice, and with it, their rights, have been seriously jeopardized since the ruling coalition came to power. The recent attempts through venal means to gain a constitutional majority, enabling the coalition to overcome any Presidential veto and even change the Constitution make a mockery of democracy and seriously distort the electoral results from the 2006 parliamentary elections.

The “virus of rebellion”, the thirst for freedom, the will to freely determine their own fate were so intense specifically among Ukrainians. It was they who inspired people to rise up albeit in the face of inevitable death.
This was what inspired the Shestydesyatnyky, [the Sixties Activists] who went to the camps for the right to call things by their own names, it was this that inspired people during the autumn of 2004.
I would advise Ukrainian politicians to remember this.
Secondly, all modern history demonstrates that a political regime which violates human rights and the rule of law ever more overtly is sooner or later doomed.

There is no more immediate task in Ukraine than that on which we are working – the creation of a powerful machine for independent civic assessment of the work of the authorities, for appealing against decisions which run counter to the law, human rights and public interest, for the lobbying of these interests.
The revolution in Ukrainian lies ahead and this revolution won’t be orange. It will be the struggle of the people for the return of their state. This revolution will be blue and yellow, the colours of the Ukrainian flag. And it is a pleasure to think that these are also the colours of United Europe. We are one in our freedom!

Over the past 15 years Ukraine has certainly become a much freer nation than many of its former Soviet neighbors. Yet, as this year’s events have demonstrated, the point of no return in the transition toward a sustainable democracy has not been passed. Elements of authoritarian culture are still preserved inside a number of institutions, notably, the security sector. There are powerful forces in the region working to undo the nascent democracy. The latter’s very institutional structure is as yet too incomplete to be immune from these challenges.

The “Maidan” Alliance is an informal association of individuals and civic organizations who are seeking to coordinate their efforts on fully developing civic society in Ukraine, as well as a state structure based on law and answerable to the public.