The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights used the Strategy for the Release of Civilians developed by the Center for Civil Liberties in his memorandum.

On July 8, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty published a special memorandum on human rights elements for peace in Ukraine. The memorandum aims to address the important task of integrating human rights into peace negotiations. Lasting peace is impossible without taking human rights into account. This is the main idea behind the international campaign People First!, which was launched in January this year by the Center for Civil Liberties and Memorial. The campaign is expanding in scale—currently, about 60 organizations from around the world are participating in it. The ideas of our campaign are gaining new supporters and are reflected in various documents.

The memorandum of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights highlights the systematic torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians in Russia and the occupied territories, the denial of access to international human rights observers, the illegal detention of thousands of Ukrainian civilians, and the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia, Belarus, or the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. Michael O’Flaherty states: “Any peace negotiations must address the release of all prisoners of war and all civilians held in custody, the search for missing persons, and the unconditional return of all illegally displaced Ukrainian children.”

 “The memorandum demonstrates a good understanding of the problem. It is the result of the European Commissioner for Human Rights’ visit to Ukraine in March this year and his meeting with Ukrainian human rights defenders. Analytical materials from Ukrainian human rights organizations played an important role in providing an accurate and in-depth description of the situation. During their meeting with the European Commissioner for Human Rights, representatives of the Center for Civil Liberties handed him a number of documents, including the Strategy for the Release of Civilians. Michael O’Flaherty used this strategic document and mentioned it in the list of sources for his Memorandum. Such analysis plays a special role during the war, as Russian aggression has created numerous human rights violations. Europe has no experience in responding to problems of this scale and severity, and therefore the Ukrainian human rights perspective on the issue is extremely important,” says Mykhailo Savva, a member of the expert council of the Center for Civil Liberties.