Ukraine: Blunt force: Torture and police impunity in Ukraine

Index Number: EUR 50/010/2011
Date Published: 12 October 2011
Categories: Ukraine

In 2011, Ukraine celebrates its 20th year of independence from the Soviet Union. While successive governments have made progress in improving the country’s human rights record, they have failed to make Ukraine’s police force accountable under law. According to some estimates, hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine may be victims of police abuses each year. These abuses are encouraged by a culture of impunity for the police in Ukraine. The government must at last commit to comprehensively reforming the system for overseeing the police.