November 23, 2010
PRESS RELEASE
UWC DISTURBED OVER COURT ORDER BANNING PROTEST IN KYIV
According to various media reports, on November 22 the Kyiv District Administrative Court ruled to prohibit a protest in the central part of Kyiv between November 22 and 26 by entrepreneurs who have gathered from across the country to demand President Victor Yanukovych veto the Tax Code passed by the Supreme Verkhovna Rada last week.
Freedom of assembly stands alongside freedom of speech as one of the fundamental building blocks of democracy; it is a means of sharing ideas and information within a society and enables citizens to defend their rights and interests.
The protest ban approved by the Kyiv District Administrative Court is one more in a series of numerous violations of basic human rights and freedoms that have occurred in Ukraine in the past year.
The President of the Ukrainian World Congress Eugene Czolij said: “The Ukrainian World Congress is disturbed by the decision of the Kyiv District Administrative Court prohibiting the entrepreneurs’ demonstration in Kyiv. This decision a warning sign not only for Ukraine, but for the democratic world, as it signals Ukraine’s potential relapse into an authoritarian system of governance.”
UKRAINIAN WORLD CONGRESS
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Toronto, ON
M8Z 5X8 Canada
