Appeal of the #SaveOlegSentsov Global Campaign on the occasion of the birthday of the prisoner of conscience Oleg Sentsov
July 13 will be the birthday of the Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov, who received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2018 (established by the European Parliament). He has been celebrating it in the colony in the far north of the Russian Federation for the sixth year in a row. Despite the apparent absurdity of allegations, the numerous demands of international organizations, public appeals from the leaders of different countries and the vigorous support campaign, nothing is changing for the better.
Instead, the situation only worsens. The number of Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia and the annexed Crimea has now exceeded 100. The practice of kidnapping and torture continues in the occupied Donbas. Contrary to the Minsk Agreements, captives in eastern Ukraine have been waiting for more than four years to be released.
These people face a difficult task to live until they are released. Some of them die in SIZO detention centers without proper medical care like the 58-year-old Crimean Tatar Edem Bekirov, some of them for some years was isolated from the outer world like the Donetsk journalist and writer Stanislav Aseyev.
Against this backdrop, the change in the PACE regulation and the unconditional return of the Russian delegation gave free rein to the leadership of the Russian Federation to commit further large-scale repressions.
We are expecting the real action from the European Union and the member states to address the problem of illegally detained citizens of Ukraine in the Russian Federation, occupied Crimea and Donbas. Over and over again, we have been appealing to the European Union to make the next steps:
- To appoint a European Union Special Representative for the occupied Ukrainian Territories of the Crimea and Donbas. The mandate and responsibilities of the Representative shall include continuous monitoring of the situation with human rights violations in the occupied Ukrainian territories of Crimea and Donbas and regular public reporting to the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament on the state of affairs.
- To demand from the Russian Federation unhindered access to the occupied Ukrainian territories of Crimea and Donbas for international intergovernmental organizations, in particular, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission, the OSCE Human Rights Assessment Mission on Crimea, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, other conventions and institutional mechanisms of the Council of Europe, etc., as well as for international humanitarian organizations, in particular the International Committee of the Red Cross.
- To establish the permanent monitoring of the trials of victims of political persecution in the Russian Federation and the occupied Crimea, as well as to continue the practice of the participation of diplomats of the European Union member states in court hearings that take place in the territory of the Russian Federation. To organize missions involving independent physicians to Ukrainian citizens who are held politically motivated in the Russian Federation and the occupied Crimea to monitor their detention conditions and state of health.
- To demand from the Russian Federation the suspension of political persecution and immediate release of Oleg Sentsov and all citizens of Ukraine, prisoners for political motives in Russia and the occupied Crimea, prisoners of war and civilian hostages in the occupied Donbas, as well as 24 Ukrainian navy officers, considered as prisoners of war. Until then to demand respect for their rights and freedoms, in particular freedom from torture, the right to an effective remedy, the right to a fair trial, and other human rights. We put forward similar demands regarding the protection of the rights of prisoners who were detained in the period of Ukrainian Donbas, which are still in the occupied Donbas and who in many cases already have served their sentence, and we demand that they be immediately handed over to Ukraine.
- To support the process of adopting the European legislation like the Magnitsky Act, as well as adopting national laws that impose personal sanctions on people who are involved in gross human rights violations around the world, in particular, political persecutions in the Russian Federation and in the occupied Ukrainian territories of Crimea and Donbas. To continue EU sanctions against the Russian Federation to complete de-occupation of Ukrainian territories.
The appeal is supported by:
Center for Civil Liberties
The Association of Relatives of the Kremlin’s Political Prisoners
Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group
Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union
Centre of Law Enforcement Activities Research
Center for Global Studies Strategy XXI
Crimea SOS
Zmina Human Rights Center
Volunteer Movement “Space of Freedom”
International Alliance for freedom of Ukrainian political prisoners
Foundation of Regional Initiatives
Ukrainian Support Society, Latvia
NGO “Union of Forced Migrants”
Tavria Humanitarian Platform
NGO “Crimean Center of Business and Cultural Cooperation “Ukrainian House”
Team of the editorial office of the newspaper “Crimean Svitlytsia”
NGO “Union of Rural Women of Ukraine”
NGO “Union of Farmers and Private Landowners of Zin’kivshchyna”
Expert Center for Human Rights
NGO “Network of Responsible Citizens”
Kherson Center for Local Self-Government Development
Civic Center “New Generation”, Kherson
All-Ukrainian Association “Automaidan”
Media Initiative for human rights
Center for Democracy and Rule of Law
Cherkasy Human Rights Protection Center
Volunteers of Cherkasy Oblast
NGO “Veterans of War “Defenders of Ukraine”
MEMORIAL Deutschland e. V., Berlin
Euromaidan NRW, Köln
East Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives
SIM Legal and Political Research Center
Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy
Vynnytsia NGO “Informational and educational center “VIS’”
Centre UA NGO
Plast – NSOU
NGO “Regional Centre for Human Rights”
Educational Human Rights House – Chernihiv
NGO “Ukraine without torture”
Open Society Foundation, NGO
