Working Report of the NGO “Helsinki Initiative – XXI” for 2015
Throughout the year, the NGO “Helsinki Initiative – XXI” acted as a regional partner of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (UHHRU) in the operation of its reception office in Ternopil. The reception office is located at the address: 46000 Ternopil, 11 Zhyvova St., office 903. Lawyers and volunteers of the NGO “Helsinki Initiative – XXI” conducted off-site receptions in institutions of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine within the Ternopil Region, and provided legal assistance to internally displaced persons and those affected by the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine at their places of residence.
The “Helsinki Initiative – XXI” partnered with the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG) and the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in holding a seminar on access to public information in Ternopil on 24 April.
The “Helsinki Initiative – XXI” held several public events commemorating the International Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation on the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. For example, the Ukrainian translation of Naomi Morgenstern's book “The Daughter We Had Always Wanted: The Story of Marta” (translation by Anton and Andrii Stepanenko) was presented at the Oleksandr Barvinskyi Chortkiv Humanitarian-Pedagogical College. Volunteers of the NGO “Helsinki Initiative – XXI”, students of the college Svitlana Dutchak and Olha Kovpak, took part in conducting this event.
Additionally, materials from the historical conference “Through Knowledge of the Tragedy of the Holocaust to the Return of Historical Memory and Human Unity”, commemorating the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust and the 70th anniversary of the destruction of the Jewish ghetto in Chortkiv, were compiled and prepared for publication.
Commemorating the 160th anniversary of the birth of Anton Horbachevskyi (1856 – 1944), one of the first lawyers and human rights defenders in Galicia, texts for publications in periodicals and an illustrated presentation for educational institutions were created within the framework of the “Common Heritage” programme, jointly with the ENGO “Green World”.
Throughout the year, the NGO “Helsinki Initiative – XXI” facilitated the activities of two Docudays UA human rights documentary film clubs: at the district library in Chortkiv (“Cinema Club on Zelena Street”) and at the Kopychyntsi Correctional Colony No. 112 (“Free Zone” Cinema Club).
In November and December, the “Helsinki Initiative – XXI”, jointly with the ENGO “Green World”, facilitated the events of the Docudays UA Travelling International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival in six districts of the Ternopil Region (Borshchiv, Buchach, Zalishchyky, Husiatyn, Monastyryska, and Chortkiv) and in the city of Chortkiv.
In 2015, a member of the NGO “Helsinki Initiative – XXI”, Olha Kushneryk, won the all-Ukrainian investigative journalism contest conducted with the support of the organisations “Reanimation Package of Reforms”, “Transparency International Ukraine”, “Regional Press Development Institute”, “Centre of Policy and Legal Reform”, and the “Ukrainian Legal Foundation”.
The “Helsinki Initiative – XXI” partnered with other non-governmental organisations, educational, and cultural institutions of the Ternopil Region in conducting a number of civic public events within the context of the All-Ukrainian Week of Law, 8–12 December.
The organisation's page on the Internet was maintained on a voluntary basis.
No financial activity of the NGO “Helsinki Initiative – XXI” was carried out during the year.
All activities of the NGO “Helsinki Initiative – XXI” were organised and conducted on a voluntary basis.