ZMINA human rights expert Maryna Demura is a laureate of the REDRESS Innovative Lawyers Awards

Maryna Demura, human rights expert of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA and Candidate of Legal Sciences, has become a laureate of the international REDRESS Innovative Lawyers Awards, awarded annually by the human rights organisation REDRESS.

The award recognises lawyers who have relatively recently joined the field of combating torture and have already made a significant contribution to the protection of human rights in this area. As Maryna Demura herself notes, one of the key selection criteria was engagement with this issue at an early stage of one’s professional career.

“I started monitoring places of detention only in 2024, so in my application I emphasised that I have relatively little experience in this field,” she said.

As part of the award, laureates have the opportunity to publish their own materials and participate in international events. In particular, Demura prepared an article on the work of monitoring groups in Ukraine during the war, which was published on the organisers’ platform.

In her article, she describes how, even in the context of the full-scale war in Ukraine, monitors from the National Preventive Mechanism continue to visit places of detention. Despite shelling, power cuts and limited resources, human rights defenders carry out regular visits to places of detention, document violations and provide recommendations to address them.

Demura emphasises that independent monitoring of places of detention is essential for preventing torture and ill-treatment, especially during wartime: “Even in the most difficult times, respect for human dignity must remain an unwavering value.“

The human rights defender also draws attention to the challenges faced by monitors: reduced funding for the National Preventive Mechanism, work in frontline regions, and risks to life due to shelling. Despite this, more than 600 monitoring visits were carried out across Ukraine in 2025.

Receiving the REDRESS award is, above all, an international recognition of the work of Ukrainian human rights defenders.

For reference: REDRESS is an international human rights organisation based in London that specialises in combating torture and securing justice for survivors. It provides legal assistance to survivors, seeks reparations (compensation), and promotes accountability at both national and international levels, including through its active work in Ukraine. Since 2018, REDRESS has also been actively developing its support for lawyers in this field, in particular through the Innovative Lawyers Award, which recognises a new generation of human rights defenders engaged in documenting crimes and holding perpetrators to account.