Ms. Olha Skrypnyk, Chairperson of the Crimean Human Rights Group Board, and Mr. Stanislav Asieiev, founder of the Justice Initiative Fund, became laureates of Freedom Award 2024 International Prize of Poul Lauritzen Foundation (Denmark).
The Foundation was founded by Mr. Poul Lauritzen, a Danish businessman and active participant of the WWII Resistance Movement in Denmark. The foundation awards an annual prize for outstanding achievements in human rights defence and spreading the information on the human rights violations in different parts of the world.
The awarding ceremony was held in the Danish Resistance Museum. In her speech Ms. Skrypnyk thanked the people of Denmark for military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
“Maksym Kryvtsov, a young Ukrainian poet and a well-known children’s coach of the Strokati Yenoty (Сolorful Raccoons) summer camp, wrote such lines: “When I am asked what war means, my prompt answer will be: THE NAMES.” Maksym voluntarily joined the ranks of the Ukrainian army to protect Ukrainian children, for whom he became the best teacher. He died at the front from Russian shelling in last January.
The war in Ukraine is names, names of brave military who are defending laying down their lives, names of prisoners of war and civilian captives suffering from brutal torture in Russian jails; names of children killed by Russian missiles and bombs or kidnapped and deported to Russia; names of people resisting in the Russian occupation.
The ceremony in the Museum of Occupation is specifically symbolic for us. This award is not only the recognition of our work; this is for all those who are resisting the Russian occupation, who hold true to human rights’ values, who is fighting for justice and despite everything remains Ukrainian,” Ms. Skrypnyk emphasized.
The human rights defender said that for 11 years, since the beginning of the Russian aggression, the CHRG had been collecting evidence of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Crimea and other occupied territories. More than 1,500 victims of politically motivated persecution in the occupied Crimea were documented, information on 600 judges and 200 prosecutors and representatives of the Russian FSB who were directly involved in politically motivated persecution and torture of the Ukrainian citizens in the occupied Crimea and other occupied territories as well as in Russia was collected. Several communications about war crimes committed in the occupied Crimea were submitted to the International Criminal Court.
Ms. Olha Skrypnyk pointed out that only about 180 civilian captives had been released since 2022 within Ukraine – Russia exchanges. Thousands of people may never come back home from the Russian captivity.
According to the CHRG chairperson, everyone can contribute today to release and return Ukrainians from captivity. To achieve this, it is important to:
– be active under the International Platform to release civil hostages
– bring Russia’s crimes against civilians into view
– spread information and stories of civil hostages
– keep on granting military aid to Ukraine since today we have no other way to protect people in Ukraine but with weapons.
“Ukraine has become another historical example when everyone can change the course of history, can resist even the most horrible enemy, can win freedom. Today the entire democratic world is facing a challenge. Totalitarian and terrorist regimes are striving to destroy the system built on values of human rights and democracy. If each of us becomes a part of this resistance, we will preserve the world built on value of human life and human dignity,” Ms. Skrypnyk said.
