Authorities should not persecute volunteers as the state relies on them during war – Danyil Popkov
On July 24, the report “CSO METER: Ukraine 2022. Country Report“, describing the risks and threats to civil society, the prospects for its development in cooperation with business and the authorities, as well as the observance of the fundamental rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen, was presented. In particular, Human Rights Centre ZMINA contributed to the report by participating in the preparation of the part on the persecution of civil society.
During the presentation of the report, ZMINA legal advisor Danyil Popkov outlined the risks that currently exist for civil society:
“In addition to restricting registers and access to information, a dangerous legislative initiative emerged last year which provided for concealing court decisions in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions. Together with our colleagues, we criticized this decision, and consideration of this draft law is currently suspended. Blocking the accounts of NGOs is another risk. But the criminal prosecution of volunteers is the greatest threat to civil society in our opinion.”
Popkov said that ZMINA had registered 20 such cases last year. And despite the assurances of the authorities that the volunteers will no longer be persecuted, there was also one case related to the alleged sale of humanitarian aid this year.
Danyil Popkov“On the one hand, the reason was peacetime legislation because it has not been adapted yet to the needs that arose after the start of the full-scale invasion. On the other hand, after verifying the cases, we saw abuse by law enforcement officers, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the prosecutor’s office. This is evidenced by the fact that law enforcement officers used the provocation of crimes, although this technique is prohibited by the criminal procedure. We saw this in almost all cases of volunteers that ZMINA accompanied. Although we communicated with the Prosecutor General’s Office several times and said that the persecution of volunteers is unacceptable, only one out of 20 cases was closed,” the expert noted.
In addition, according to him, for volunteers, these are not just open proceedings but loss of reputation, health problems, seized property, etc. Popkov believes that volunteer activity is one of the pillars on which the state currently stands, and protecting it is a critical task of Ukrainian society.
Watch the video from the event here.
