CCL received “Democracy Award 2022” the prestigious National Endowment for Democracy award
The Center for Civil Liberties, along with several other non-governmental organizations, received the prestigious US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) award for its significant contribution to the development of the human rights movement in Ukraine and its work during Russia’s large-scale military invasion of Ukraine.
“Any recognition is valuable because it provides an opportunity to articulate important things for Ukraine. The Democracy Award is a recognition of the work of many people. I thank all the hundreds of people who joined the Euromaidan SOS volunteer initiative – which includes facilitating appeals of people in need at the call center, collecting evidence of war crimes in the field in mobile groups, recording victims’ testimonies of war crimes and atrocities across the country, maintain prisoner databases, verified information about what is happening in Ukraine, provide legal assessments of the situation and consolidate population efforts in contradicting Russian aggression, strengthen democracy and sustain democratic institutions in Ukraine” said Oleksandra Matviychuk the head of the Center for Civil Liberties, commenting on the prestigious award.
It is worth noting that, together with CCL, this year three other Ukrainian non-governmental organizations won the NED Democracy Award 2022: Anti-Corruption Action Center, the Public Interest Journalism Lab and the Ukrainian Volunteer Service.
The Democracy Prize is awarded annually by the NED Board of Directors to honor the courageous and creative work of individuals and organizations that promote human rights and democracy around the globe.
Background Note:
The Anti-Corruption Action Center is a Ukrainian civil society organization, which unites experts from legal, media and civic-political sectors fighting corruption as a root cause of the key state-building problems in Ukraine. The organization’s strategic goal: To create conditions, under which it would be too risky and unprofitable for the authorities to engage in corruption.
Their activity is focused on political corruption in the form of regulatory decisions taken by the officials in power. They believe that political corruption under conditions of having a small group of interrelated people coming to power is the root cause of challenges in the nation-building of Ukraine. Political corruption leads to a significant increase in the level of administrative corruption and takes petty domestic corruption into the normal way of life. Political corruption takes billions from the state budget and depletes national resources by violating fundamental human rights and condemning them to poverty.
The organization has brought together the legal, media, and civic sectors to shape anti-corruption legislation and policy in Ukraine since its inception in 2012. This was a guarantee that the Ukrainian parliament had developed strong anti-corruption legislation and policies. These include the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court, open property registers and electronic declaration of property. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the group has been actively reporting on Russian atrocities in Ukraine, seeking increased support from governments and international institutions, and running the #BlockPutinWallets advocacy campaign to raise awareness of the Kremlin’s wealth pays for influence in Western democracies. Daria Kaleniuk is a co-founder and executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre.
Public Interest Journalism Lab (PIJL) founded by Ukrainian journalists Nataliya Gumenyuk and Angelina Kariakina, the Lab is an interdisciplinary coalition of journalists and sociologists, including the Arena Programme at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, Kharkiv Institute of Social Research, and Lviv Media Forum. They create high-quality content to promote a constructive discussion around complex social topics, and test this content on audiences, before developing editorial strategies based on sociological research. Their experts research public opinion and test content among different audiences, and media architects develop editorial strategies based on sociological research and audiences’ feedback.
Public Interest Journalism Lab – promotes constructive discussion of complex social topics with the help of high-quality content since its inception in 2020. This interdisciplinary coalition of journalists and sociologists researches, creates and promotes the best practices of journalism in the digital age. By researching public opinion and testing content among different audiences, its experts develop editorial strategies based on sociological research and audience feedback. After the start of a full-scale war against Ukraine, the organization continued to work with leading media. The group documents the testimonies and life stories of Ukrainians during the war and creates an archive of evidence that will raise public awareness and promote justice for the victims. Nataliya Gumenyuk is the general director and co-founder of the organization.
The Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) is one of the leading human rights organizations in Ukraine founded in 2007. The activities of the Center are aimed at protecting human rights and promoting democracy in Ukraine and the OSCE region. The organization is known for its work on improving legislation, implementing public control practices, conducting educational activities and protecting persecuted people in the occupied territories of Crimea and Donbas. The organization widely engages ordinary people in human rights work through its human rights campaigns and volunteer initiatives
During Euromaidan, the organization launched the Euromaidan SOS initiative to provide legal and other assistance to persecuted protesters across the country. Since the beginning of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, the CCL has been monitoring political persecution in the occupied Crimea, documenting war crimes and crimes against humanity during the hybrid war in Donbas, and conducting international campaigns to release Kremlin political prisoners. In response to Russia’s war against Ukraine in February 2022, the group mobilized human rights defenders across the country to document war crimes and seek justice for victims. The CCLs advocacy work aims to reveal the stories of individual victims, as well as explain the systemic nature of sexual violence and other atrocities as methods of waging war against the Ukrainian people. The NGOs chairwoman is Oleksandra Matviychuk.
The Ukrainian Volunteer Service (UVS) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to develop a culture of volunteering in Ukraine. The UPS trains promising civic activists to build public-private partnerships and promote sustainable activism. Since its founding in 2017, more than seven hundred organizations have joined the community, and more than 5,000 activists have graduated. Since the start of the full-scale war, the UVS has mobilized thousands of volunteers across the country to coordinate humanitarian assistance to people affected by the Russian invasion and to support other volunteer organizations. The team uses its extensive network and innovative technology solutions to provide humanitarian, medical, IT and other resources to needy communities. Anna Bondarenko is the founder and CEO.
