During spring of 2014 Sloviansk became the starting point for the flames of an armed conflict in Donbas. Neighbors, colleagues, friends and relatives stood on the opposite sides of the barricades and, as a result, many of them had become archenemies. It is difficult to imagine how the children, who were in the city during the time of occuppation, experienced this informational and later miitarized rage.
The events of the spring of 2014 were described by teenagers as the beginning of hostilities and artillery shelling; some recall the ideological and political confrontation that emerged among school students:
“We had that thing that the peers were divided, and ... constantly provoked conflicts inside their community. For example, saying that is my truth, I am right, and you are wrong ... they created two camps: “square” and “anti-Maidan”, but for children,” - says Evhen (name changed), who was studying at one of the schools in Sloviansk at that time.
Participants of the protest actions were also among the teenagers who studied at vocational schools: both pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian.
After the start of hostilities and shelling, educational institutions of the city had not been working as usual. Sometimes illegal armed formations built the barricades in a proximity to educational institutions. According to eyewitnesses, sometimes the distance from the checkpoints was around 120-200 meters. Many educational institutions also suffered from shelling. According to media reports, 13, 4, 16, 9 schools, boarding school, as well as a dormitory of the local university were destroyed. Children`s hospital, kindergartens, premises of the orphanage "Sails of Hope", the Protestant community "Good News" were also the targets for artillery attacks. The same story with orphanage №2 «Topoliok». There were cases when representatives of illegal armed groups used school premises as "headquarters".
According to the residents of the city, most often the children left Sloviansk with their parents for safer regions. Volunteers evacuated pupils of orphanages to the territory controlled by the government of Ukraine. There were also attempts to organize the evacuation to annexed Crimea. However, it was not always possible to protect the young residents of the city from the horrors of war.
The Health Department of Sloviansk City Council reported on 2 dead and 3 more wounded chldren during the occupation of the city. The once can find an information in open sources about 3 children who died in Sloviansk: of 6, 12 and 5 years.
Those, who were in the city during the shelling, shared their memories of those times: shells hitting houses, death of people, limited access to vital resources, persecution for political views.
“At the age of twelve, of course, it was difficult. [...] It was difficult for me, it was difficult for my parents, as well as for other people in this city. It was a living hell. When you know that this day four people will die in your city ... And you do not know for sure when the shelling starts or when the shell “will fall”,” - recalls Evhen.
There is an information about minors who joined the armed confrontation. During the monitoring study, Eastern Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives documented at least 15 cases of the participation of children in armed formations during the hostilites in the city. In addition, documentators noted 8 more references to groups of minors who took part in armed formations. These are children under the age of 18 who have been exposed to heightened danger by the combatants by engaging in illegal activities. However, not a single member of the armed formations was held accountable for these crimes.
The situation in the city remains tense even after the liberation of Sloviansk from the forces of the "DPR":
“The conflict is still there. I don't know how to actually get rid of those tension at all. Now we have "fifty-fifty". We have people who hate Ukraine, there are people who love it. I don't know how this conflict can be resolved. Of course, when we already have to communicate with someone, we try to look for common ground and look for constructive dialogue. But it's very difficult,” - says Polina (name changed), a local activist.
Young people believe that educational activities and the implementation of joint projects for the city play a significant role in achieving mutual understanding among children and adolescents. Young people with different political views do not hesitate to visit these events. They stay united by the willingness to change the city for the better.
“We have started "The Park" project, which united the youth. We wanted to create a place, where we could enjoy conversations with other young people, relax, and do some activities for leisure," - says an activist, one of the organizers of youth actions.
In a conflict situation, children and youth become one of the most vulnerable categories of the population, but at the same time they have a significant power and resource for achieving reconciliation and harmony in the future. Work with children and adolescents to overcome the consequences of conflict as well as creation of a positive environment for youth development in local communities, is a powerful tool for building peace in communities.
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On Monday, June 3rd, Eastern Ukrainian Centre for Civic Initiatives with its partner organizations from the Coalition “Justice for P...
On Monday, June 3rd, Eastern Ukrainian Centre for Civic Initiatives with its partner organizations from the Coalition “Justice for Peace in Donbas” presented the touring exhibition on human rights violations in eastern Ukraine “Na Zlami / On the Rift” at “Zoloti Vorota” museum. The exhibition shows 13 changes in life of civilians since 2014 as a result of the war in Donbas.
Presentation and creation of the exhibition “Na Zlami / On the rift” are the results of the project “Empowering civil society for a transformation of commemorative culture”, implemented by KURVE Wustrow in collaboration with Eastern Ukrainian Centre for Civic Initiatives and its partner organizations from the Coalition “Justice for Peace in Donbas”.
Former victims of human rights violations during the war in the Donbas were the guests of the event as well as representatives of international and Ukrainian NGOs. Artists and journalists were also present during the presentation.
The visitor can see 13 conventional rifts that demonstrate demographic and social changes in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, the destruction of family relations, and the marginalization of the local population along with the personal drama of civilians, trying to survive in new harsh conditions.
The exhibition is a collaborative project of the partner organizations of the Coalition “Justice for Peace in Donbas”: Vostok SOS, Moloda Prosvita Prykarpattia, Human Rights Civil Research Centre, Committee for the Protection of the Constitutional Rights and Freedoms of Citizens, Crisis Media Centre “Siverskyi Donets”, and Eastern Ukrainian Centre for Civic Initiatives.
«We have fifth year of war with Russia in our country. However, a part of Ukrainians neither want to hear about it nor see it. We want to show those, who have not experienced horrors of war, that the pain and suffering of our citizens is real. That is the primary reason why we have created “Na Zlami” and want to present it all over Ukraine», - mentioned Volodymyr Shcherbachenko, head of Eastern Ukrainian Centre for Civic Initiatives.
Former witnesses and victims, who had become protagonists of the exhibition, spoke about the dramatic experience of change after the start of war. Many of them experienced uncertainty, the loss of social ties, and the disruption of daily life. Many of them had to survive.
«I always had the feeling like I was on the edge. When I had left my city, I did not have any money. During the first six months after departure, I had a strong feeling of hunger because I could not find a job. I did not have social connections; I did not know where to find a job. I had to work as a loader or a miller. It was a hard time», - said Evhen Shliakhtin, one of the protagonists of the exhibition, former detainee of illegal prison in Luhansk.
“Na Zlami / On the Rift” tries to convey a holistic picture of the disruption of the fabric of Ukrainian society during the war in Donbas. The exhibition stands combine excerpts from interviews of former victims or witnesses of human rights violations along with infographics and statistics.
«Na Zlami” is an attempt to lend a voice to people, who have lost their rights, their freedom, their health, their home or a person close to them to the violence in eastern Ukraine. This has led to a multilayered picture that still can only begin to explain why this war broke out and how it could be settled», - mentioned Simon Schlegel, one of the coauthors of the idea of the exhibition.
All those, who were present during a presentation, noted that “On the Rift” focuses the viewer`s attention not only on the problem of the civilian population in the past, but also on their integration into society as well as brings a new perspective on the acceptance of witnesses and victims of war in society.
On the 30th of May female survivors of the armed conflict together with the representatives of component public authorities discusse...
On the 30th of May female survivors of the armed conflict together with the representatives of component public authorities discussed how to restore justice in the situations when people were detained, undergone violence or their other rights were violated.
The public discussion “What does “restoration of justice” mean for women and girls affected by the armed conflict” was initiated by an NGO “Eastern-Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives” with the support of the Special Representative of the Ukrainian government on gender policy Kateryna Levchenko
«There are many specific problems related to women only, but they are not discussed in the society. Today we see here almost all the sides that should be included into the process of justice restoration. How this justice should look like? Should it mean reparations or compensations, just punishment of the perpetrators and the degrees of punishment? That’s why we’ve initiated such event”
said Volodymyr Shcherbachenko, head of Eastern-Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives.
He suggested to work in small groups where both the women and the law enforcement officers discussed “what is justice” and “what are the impediments to restore justice”. After these discussions the participants shared their thoughts in order to decide together about the mechanisms of justice restoration.
“Such discussions help us to hear those in need and translate the language of the documents into the language of regulator acts that are very pertinent”,
Kateryna Levchenko commented on the ideas of the participants.
A major part of the event was dedicated to the discussion of gender-based violence. Hanna Yanova, the Center’s researcher, who worked on the report “War without Rules: Gender-Based Violence in the Context of the Armed Conflict in Eastern Ukraine”, pointed out:
“The conflict contributed to many various human rights violations. These are shelling, enforced disappearances, murder and torture. There are different responsible persons and the crimes are very specific, but there is one thing that is common—people want to restore justice. They want to achieve compensation of court’s decision, find those guilty, or the body of the disappeared person”.
Kateryna Levchenko said it was important that the representatives of law enforcement agencies and the OSCE observers took place in this discussion. She also said that judges are currently being trained to hear cases related to violence, committed during the armed conflict. She added that they will take into account the issue of social and other kinds of aid.
Among the participants of the event, there were women who survived violence, were held in detention, as well as relatives of the deceased and people who lost their house or it got damaged as a result of shelling. The female participants either live in the government-controlled territory in the east of Ukraine or are IDPs. All of them shared their views on the restoration of justice.
“I wish that none of women survived what I had been through, because for the past several years I’ve been trying to support others, to set an example that it’s important to tell about your problem”
said a former detainee Iryna Dovhan.
“If your relative had been killed and you got money for that, it wouldn’t bring him back. There should be material compensation, but does it restore justice?”
asked one of the survivors.
Each of the small groups worked on the issues of material compensation, social benefit programs, as well as social and medical aid. Kateryna Levchenko received the results of the discussions to pass them on for regulation at the legislative level.
The event was held with the support of Swedish Institute and the Department of State of the USA.
The 39th ECCHRD meeting, hosted by OSCE/ODIHR took place in Warsaw on 17 and 18 May 2018. European Co-ordination Committee on Human ...
The 39th ECCHRD meeting, hosted by OSCE/ODIHR took place in Warsaw on 17 and 18 May 2018. European Co-ordination Committee on Human Rights Documentation (ECCHRD) is an open network of Europe-based organisations and institutions producing human rights information. More precisely, it is an annual meeting of librarians, documentation and communication workers and similar staff that work with these organisations. Hanna Yanova, researcher at Eastern-Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives, who represented the Coalition of NGOs “Justice for Peace in Donbas”, participated in the event this year.
‒ Hanna, was there anything that the Coalition “Justice for Peace in Donbas” could learn from the organizations who participated in the event?
– In this regards, the Coalition has excelled also because we not only document information on human rights violations but also use it in different ways. To carry out reports for national and international advocacy, for creative projects such as documentaries and graphic novel. This is a brand new way to present the collected information. As it turns out, we have many ways to deliver information to broad audience compared to others.
– So the Ukrainian organizations are sort of synthesizing the ways to use information on human rights violations?
– Yes. In the Coalition, we collect, process and use information further. It’s a full cycle unlimited by solely the collection of information. And documentation itself is not the end but rather the beginning of the process of litigation submission to international committees. Several organizations do so, they submit information to the UN committees. But as for the participants of the event, they were mainly interested in the creative aspects which the Eastern-Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives focuses on. It’s a documentary about the transformation of Luhansk regional administration into a place of illegal detention, and a graphic novel “The crossroads: nine stories about war and violence”. Others don’t do such things. I think that such ways only enlarge the circle of people to deliver this information to, and it’s always positive.
By Alina Bodnar
This is an excerpt of the interview. Full version is available in Ukrainian: https://jfp.org.ua/coalition/novyny-koalicii/articles/hanna-yanova
The Secretariat of the Coalition «Justice for Peace in Donbas»
