“We are all fighting for peace, but peace is not occupation”. Oleksandra Matviichuk met Pope Francis

On 11 May, Oleksandra Matviichuk, Head of the Center for Civil Liberties, met Pope Francis during her visit to Rome and, in particular, to the Vatican. The human rights defender became one of the participants in the Second World Meeting on Human Fraternity, organized in the Vatican by the Fratelli Tutti Foundation.

Oleksandra emphasized the role of values of freedom in Ukrainian society and presented the Pope with a book by Stanislav Asieiev entitled The Torture Camp on Paradise Street. Its author spent two years in the secret Izoliatsia prison in Donetsk where people were daily beaten and tortured.

On the same days, a conference was held in the Vatican, where Nobel Peace Prize winners and representatives of various international organizations were invited to draft a joint document, the Declaration of Peace. Personalities from all over the world were involved in its development. 

“Together, we discussed the Declaration of Peace, both the text of this declaration and its points of emphasis. It is very important that the final text of the Declaration of Peace includes a point that each Ukrainian understands but which is not so obvious to the international community. It was about the idea that occupation is also a war and that we all want peace. We all fight for peace, but peace is not occupation”, Oleksandra said in her interview for Vatican News.

The Center for Civil Liberties has been documenting war crimes since 2014, and the joint database of the Tribunal for Putin initiative now contains over 70,000 cases. According to estimates made by human rights defenders, about 7,000 civil Ukrainians can be held in captivity by Russia.