Discussion with representatives of the “Justice for Peace in Donbas” Coalition
Oleksii Bida, an activist from the Center for Audio-visual Art, was abducted in early May 2014 in his hometown of Luhansk. Members of pro-Russian forces unlawfully detained, interrogated and tortured him for hours. He was released the following day and left Lugansk immediately. Oleksii had previously organized and participated in a number of events in support of the unity of Ukraine. Apart from this engagement, he was not involved in politics nor did he take part in the conflict. This was only one of many instances of human rights violations committed in the territories under the control of pro-Russian forces in Ukraine.
Representatives of the ‘Justice for Peace in Donbas’ Coalition, comprising several human rights organizations from East Ukraine, began their study visit to the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) on Monday, May 11th, 2015. The organizations comprising the ‘Justice for Peace in Donbas’ Coalition have been working intensively on gathering and documenting information on human rights violations and on advocating the rights of the victims of the conflict currently ongoing in the east of Ukraine. Owing to the armed conflict, most of them have been forced during the past year to leave Luhansk and Donetsk and to continue working on documenting human rights violations in the refuge. 
