It’s not too late to sign this petition, which will be delivered in Kyiv this week as well as in Washington, D.C. Sign here!
By The Center on Conscience and War, World BEYOND War, Code Pink,
Veterans For Peace, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Pax Christi USA,
The European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO), War Resisters’
International (WRI), the International Fellowship of Reconciliation
(IFOR) and Connection e.V. (Germany), September 16, 2023
JOIN US AT NOON ON MONDAY IN DC!
At 12:00 p.m., on September 18, days before President Zelensky’s arrival in the U.S. and anticipating a September 20th
hearing, in Kiev, for peace activist Yurii Sheliazhenko, human rights
activists will deliver a petition to the Embassy of Ukraine in
Washington, D.C., (3350 M St NW, Washington, DC 20007), urging Ukraine
to release peace activist Yurii Sheliazhenko and drop all charges
against him.
The Center on Conscience and War, World BEYOND War, Code Pink,
Veterans For Peace, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Pax Christi USA,
The European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO), War Resisters’
International (WRI), the International Fellowship of Reconciliation
(IFOR) and Connection e.V. (Germany) strongly condemn the fact that
Yurii Sheliazhenko, a well-known conscientious objector, pacifist, human
rights defender and lawyer, Executive Secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, has been placed under partial house arrest by the Solomyanskyi District Court of Kyiv on 15 August 2023.
Beginning at 12 noon on Monday, September 18, representatives of a
growing coalition seeking Sheliazhenko’s release will assemble at the
Embassy of Ukraine in Washington, D.C.,( 3350 M St NW, Washington, DC
20007), to deliver a petition urging democratic leaders President
Zelensky and President Biden, along with all Ukrainian diplomats to
uphold the right of conscientious objection as well as the right to
freedom of expression, acknowledging that Ukrainian peace activist Yurii
Sheliazhenko deplores all war and has steadily advocated for people of
all countries to take a principled stand embracing pacifism. Prosecutors
in Kiev have stated, in a press release, that Yurii Sheliazhenko is a
Russian propagandist and that efforts will be made to “stop” him.
Yurii Sheliazhenko is a prisoner of conscience detained simply for
peacefully expressing his genuine pacifist views, and should be
immediately and unconditionally released and all the charges against him
dropped. The Ukrainian authorities should respect the right to freedom
of expression and stop the crackdown on Yurii Sheliazhenko and
the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, which reveals their growing intolerance
for dissent.
We remind the Ukrainian government that pacifism is not a crime in
democratic states. We demand that human rights are fully protected,
including the right to conscientious objection to military service,
which is inherent in the right to freedom of thought, conscience and
religion, guaranteed, amongst others, under Article 9 of the European
Convention on Human Rights, as well as under Article 18 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which is
non-derogable even in a time of public emergency, as stated in Article
4(2) of ICCPR.
We strongly condemn all actions of harassment and all attempts of
intimidation against Yurii Sheliazhenko and the Ukrainian Pacifist
Movement, as well as all cases of forced recruitment and even abduction
of conscripts to the involved armies in the war in Ukraine, and all
persecutions of conscientious objectors, deserters and non-violent
anti-war protestors in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and elsewhere.
We support the IPB intention
to nominate three remarkable organizations with a focus on the right to
conscientious objection for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize; the Russian
Movement of Conscientious Objectors, the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement,
and the Belarusian organization “Our House”.
PRESS PACK – Chronology & Resources:
11 August 2022: Criminal proceedings open against Yurii
Sheliazhenko, Executive Secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, on
the pretext of anti-Ukrainian character of his human rights defending
activities, notably legal aid consultation text “human right to
conscientious objection to military service”.
21 September 2022, International Day of Peace: The Ukrainian Pacifist Movement meets and adopts the Statement entitled “Peace Agenda for Ukraine and the World”.
3 August 2023: Yurii Sheliazhenko, Executive Secretary of the
Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, is charged with the crime of “justification
of Russian aggression” with sole “evidence” the Statement of 21
September 2022, which explicitly condemns Russian aggression. The
Security Service of Ukraine breaks into the apartment of Yurii
Sheliazhenko and conducts an illegal search and seizure operation,
finding nothing criminal and taking his phone, his computer, as well as
some documents of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement.
3 August 2023: World BEYOND War launches
a petition to the Ukrainian Government entitled “Tell the Ukrainian
Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko”.
4 August 2023: The IPB announces
its intention to nominate three remarkable organizations with a focus
on the right to conscientious objection for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize;
the Russian Movement of Conscientious Objectors, the Ukrainian Pacifist
Movement, and the Belarusian organization “Our House”.
4 August 2023: EBCO, WRI, IFOR and Connection e.V. publish
a Joint Press Release in the framework of the #ObjectWarCampaign,
entitled “Ukraine: Pacifism is not a crime in democratic states! Drop
the charge against Yurii Sheliazhenko, #FreePeaceSpeech”.
4 August 2023: IPB publishes a Press Release entitled “Justice for Yurii Sheliazhenko”.
5 August 2023: EBCO President meets
with Yurii Sheliazhenko and his advocate Svitlana Novytska during her
human rights monitoring mission in Kyiv.
7-8-9 August 2023: Yurii Sheliazhenko is summoned to interrogation.
7 August 2023: EBCO President meets the Senior Investigator of
the Investigative Department of the Security Service of Ukraine, but
she is not allowed to attend the interrogation according to the
Ukrainian law.
7 August 2023: EBCO publishes a Video Interview with Yurii Sheliazhenko in Kyiv.
8 August 2023: The Senior Investigator of the Investigative
Department of the Security Service of Ukraine with the agreement of the
Prosecutor of the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office submits a request to the
Court on the application of a preventive measure in the form
of 24-hour house arrest for 60 days to Yurii Sheliazhenko.
15 August 2023: The investigating judge of the Solomyanskyi
District Court of Kyiv in an open court session partially satisfies the
request and orders to place Yurii Sheliazhenko under house arrest,
prohibiting him from leaving his place of residence in the time period
from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. the next day until 11.10.2023 inclusive,
excluding the need to leave this home during an air raid and emergency
medical assistance. He also imposes on Yurii Sheliazhenko until October
11, 2023, inclusive, the following duties: to come to the investigator,
prosecutor, investigating judge, court at every request; to deposit with
the relevant state authorities his passport(s) for traveling abroad,
other documents giving the right to leave Ukraine and enter Ukraine (if
such documents are available); notify the investigator, prosecutor or
court about a change of residence and/or work; refrain from
communicating with persons identified by the investigator as witnesses.
Employees of the National Police, in order to monitor his behavior, have
the right to appear in the house where he is under arrest, to demand
oral or written explanations on issues related to the fulfilment of his
obligations. The decision is subject to immediate execution and can be
appealed directly to the Kyiv Court of Appeals within 5 days.
