Yanukovych-era restrictions on peaceful assemblies return – expert

The practice of injunctions against the mass events to the indefinite number of persons on an extensive area returns to Ukraine.

This was stated by co-coordinator of the Without Borders project implemented by the Social Action Centre Maksym Butkevych, commenting on the ban on holding public events in Lviv issued by the Lviv District Administrative Court.

“When the text of the ruling had been posted on social networks, it became apparent that it was very similar to the judgments, delivered by the Kyiv courts during the Yanukovych presidency. They also banned the indefinite number of people from holding long-term public events in a certain area. The practice of such judgments returns,” the Human Rights Information Centre correspondent quoted the human rights activist as saying.

According to the expert, most of those restrictions were issued in 2013.

“Our organization was one of those which were issued such a ban. We lodge an appeal against the ruling with the European Court of Human Rights. The court in Strasbourg did not consider it only because the Kyiv City State Administration had withdrawn its submission to the court, having recognized it invalid, after the victory of the Maidan. That is, the subject of litigation disappeared,” Maksym Butkevych noted.

According to him, an old technology of disruption of a peaceful assembly also returns to Ukraine.

“It is necessary to find the ideological opponents or just people who are willing to hold their action in the same place and at the same time. It is an old method that had been used for a long time. It can be coped with by separating them from each other, as it was done during some public events in Kyiv in 2007,” the expert said.

He said this practice was dangerous and contradicted the OSCE guidelines on freedom of peaceful assembly.

“This practice violates one of the basic rights – the right to expression,” the human rights activist noted.

As a reminder, March 19, 2016, the Lviv District Administrative Court banned the NGOs from holding the public events in Lviv on March 19-20.

Afterwards, the unknown masked people blocked the Dniester hotel, where the Equality Festival was to be held. All the event participants and the hotel staff were evacuated after the reports on mining. The activists were forced to leave Lviv.