“Everything depends on us”: Tetiana Pechonchyk on building Ukraine’s human rights infrastructure amid war
Documenting war crimes, crimes against humanity, protecting victims, advancing EU-related reforms – all at the same time, under missile strikes during Russia’s war against Ukraine. Speaking at the Forum 2000 conference in Prague, Tetiana Pechonchyk, head of the board of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA, explains how a civil society organisation continues to function amid a full-scale war – and what keeps her going.
Tetiana Pechonchyk grew up in a village contaminated by the Chornobyl fallout, where her parents measured mushrooms with a dosimeter before putting them on the table. She organised her first protest as a schoolgirl – calling on her classmates to boycott the unpaid fieldwork in the collective farm fields – and has never really stopped since. ZMINA, which she co-founded in 2012, now documents enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, torture and fabricated trials against Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war.
The interview was recorded at the 29th Forum 2000 Conference in Prague. Listen to the full conversation below.
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