Is the number of people who remain in places of unfreedom a state secret?
Fight For Right together with other partner organisations have been looking for an answer to this question as well as investigating, analysing for many months. Afterwards there was prepared an analytical report on observance of human rights in residential institutions for adults with disabilities and other places of unfreedom during the war.
Previous results of the research were presented by the Head of Advocacy Department Iryna Fedorovych at the conference “State of Observance of Human Rights in Places of Unfreedom during the Legal Regime of the Martial Law” organised be the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine and NGO “Ukraine Without Torture” last week.
We gathered information about the number of people in places of unfreedom, that remained under the temporary occupation and in the zone reached by the artillery fire, at different times and found an answer to the question “What does the state have to do for their safety and returning to the Ukraine`s territory?”
Key numbers:
As of March, 2022:
- 6125 people from 36 residential institutions and/or geriatric boarding houses remained under the temporary occupation;
- 14339 people from 66 residential institutions might have been remaining in potential danger because of artillery attacks;
- only 7606 people from 39 institutions remained in relatively safe territory of Ukraine.
The territory of Kharkiv region and Kherson were de-occupied till the end of the year, therefore, as of December 2022:
- 4189 people from 26 residential institutions and other places of unfreedom remained under the temporary occupation;
- 8180 people are still in danger because of the possibility of regular artillery attacks;
- 13719 people from places of unfreedom remained in relative safety.
«People with disabilities are invisible and don`t have their own voice in places of unfreedom in the peaceful time. During the war, the situation got even worse. It is essential that our government, finally, began to take action to defend all people in places of unfreedom, – Iryna Fedorovych points out – There is a necessity of transparent communication about the real number of people with disabilities who remain on temporary occupied territories, the number of people who were forcefully displaced to the territories that are not controlled by Ukraine and/or to Russian Federation. Moreover, there is the most important aspect – what does the state do to return all these people with disabilities and will they have an access to the fair trial and reimbursements as victims of war crimes?”
The official presentation and publication of the analytical report will be held soon. Follow our page for updates.
The research was conducted by NGO “Fight For Right” with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.
