Appeal

To:
E.A. Pamfilova, the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation,
V.V. Lutkovskaya, the Commissioner for Human Rights in Ukrainian Parliament,
M.A. Fedotov, the chairman of the Presidential Council of the Russian Federation for Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights

APPEAL

We, the human rights activists in Ukraine and Russia, who monitor the human rights violations in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine, appeal to you to make the joint efforts to stop the large-scale human rights violations in these conflict areas.

It goes without saying that the supervision and enforcement of the human rights in Ukraine is the foremost responsibility of the Ukrainian authorities. However, nowadays many of the human rights violations in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine are committed under the Russian flag and with the participation of citizens of this country.

Working in Donbass, we see and understand that neither of the parties to the conflict have the full control over this situation, however, the participation of the officials responsible for human rights protection and representing the Russian Federation, may probably have an impact on people, who express their desire to be supported by the Russian Federation.

The very creation of the joint mission would have confirmed that the respect for human rights is the rule beyond the politics. There is no doubt that such a mission would be more credible than any unilateral structure.

This mission can solve the most pressing problems such as a release of the forcibly detained civilians, who did not take part in the armed confrontation, as well as an ensuring of the rights of detainees in the conflict region.

The exact number of persons illegally held by armed groups that associate themselves with the Donetsk People's Republic and the one of Lugansk is unknown, but it can be about the many dozens.

It is known that they are held in the captured  administrative buildings in Lugansk, Donetsk, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Horlivka and Artemivsk (this list is not exhaustive).

The majority of the persons forcibly detained are civil society activists and their relatives, ordinary people fighting for preservation of integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, journalists, participants in the process of the presidential elections (members and heads of election commissions, representatives of presidential candidates, trustees).

Many of forcibly detained persons are subject to cruel and inhuman treatment, beatings, tortures, these prisoners do not receive the medical care. Some people have been in such conditions for several weeks.

The relatives have no opportunity to find out where the kidnapped persons are or to relieve their plight.

The human rights violations committed by the Ukrainian official authorities in the conflict regions must be taken into consideration as well. There are cases of non-admission of the lawyers to the detainees, detention without arraignment, degrading and cruel treatment, participation of unauthorized persons in investigative actions.

Taking into account the above-mentioned facts, we ask you:

1. To make a public appeal to all the groups capturing and holding civilians and to require them to stop this unacceptable practice and to release all the prisoners without any additional conditions.

2. To make a joint supervision trip visiting the main places of these detentions of civilians to negotiate the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners without any exception.

3. To initiate an establishment of an official joint Ukrainian-Russian working group that would monitor human rights violations committed by the parties to this conflict, take steps (make recommendations) to stop such violations and publish reports on the discovered violations and the actions taken against these violations. The working group could comprise people already involved in the monitoring of human rights violations, including the members of the Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights and the representatives of the human rights organizations from both countries. In addition it would be useful to invite the members of the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine to participate in this group as the observers.
Authors of the present appeal, being the representatives of Ukrainian and Russian civil society, are ready to provide you with all the information about the human rights violations in the conflict region.

We are looking forward to our cooperation

Yevgen Zakharov, director of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group
Alexandra Matveychuk, chairwoman of the Board of the Centre for Civil Liberties
Joseph Zisels, executive Vice President of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine
Arkady Bushchenko, executive director, and Nikolai Kozyrev, chairman of the Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union

Civil Initiative Group EuromaidanSOS
Civil Sector of Lugansk
Human Rights Platform Infocentre Donbass
Human Rights Center Postup
Civil Initiative Group East-SOS

Oleg Orlov, member of the board of the Human Rights Center Memorial
Lev Ponomaryov, executive director of the Russian Movement For Human Rights
Yan Rachinskiy, member of the Board of Russian Society Memorial
Ella Polyakova, chairwoman of the regional organization Soldiers' Mothers of Saint Petersburg
Andrei Yurov, coordinator of the International Human Rights Group on the Situation in Ukraine
Dmitry Makarov, Youth Human Rights Movement

The present appeal is also supported by:
Lyudmila Alekseeva, chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group
Valery Borshchev, a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group
Svetlana Gannushkina, chairwoman of the Civic Assistance Committee
Sergei Kovalyov, president of the Institute of Human Rights
Arseniy Roginskiy, chairman of theBoard of the International Society Memorial
Alexander Cherkasov, chairman of the Board of the Human Rights Center Memorial