The UN General Assembly declared the 26th of June International day in support of victims of torture. This day is conducted in order to eradicate tortures and to implement the effective action of the Convention against tortures and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment which is entered into force on 26 June 1987.
In this memorable date, the world society pays tribute to men and women who have endured terrible ordeals in their destinies and mourns about people, who couldn’t survive.
Torture, under the provisions of the UN Convention, means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.
Tortures applied not only in order to compromise deliberately physical and mental health of separate people, but in some cases to degrading and broke spirit of communities.
According to international law, tortures are a gross violation of human rights and cannot be justified by any circumstances. Freedom from torture is the absolute right, which cannot be limited under any circumstances.
Unfortunately, Donbas inhabitants in several occasions faced with this terrible crime. For years of the armed conflict, representatives of Ukrainian power structures tortured and cruelly interrogated hundreds of the inhabitants of the Republic. Many offenders still are not held responsible for their atrocities.
The Republic holds great work to combat tortured and implementation of undue violation towards citizens. Particularly, the state was and still is ready for signing the declaration on the impossibility of torturing with regard to people, who were obtained custody in the course of the conflict in Donbas, proposed by the coordinator of the humanitarian subgroup Tony Frisch. Unfortunately, this document wasn’t signed by any part because of the attempts of Ukraine to politicize such an important issue on fighting tortures.
