On June 20 and 21, 2022, in Tbilisi, Georgia, the UnMode organization conducted a training on teaching the basics of documenting human rights violations by community forces. We conduct such trainings on a regular basis, mainly for our new members who do not have experience in active human rights work, but have the intention to protect human rights as effectively as possible.
This year we were able to participate in the training and organize a subsequent retreat on the Black Sea coast in Georgia for activists from Ukraine, members of the All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with Drug Addiction (VOLNA). In the context of the ongoing military aggression of Russia in Ukraine, our main task, as a regional network organization of communities, is to help Ukrainian activists in preserving not only their physical health and lives, but also gaining psychological stability to continue human rights work in the conditions of war. Activists from Ukraine are an example of true valor and heroism. Nobody left Ukraine, everyone stayed to help their beneficiaries. We simply have to help those who help others at the risk of their lives. In addition, we consider it very important to share our experience in documenting, video documenting, using
country and international instruments for the protection of human rights so that activists from Ukraine can use it in their daily activities, including for recording war crimes. Some theoretical stuff:
“What do we want to achieve as a result?
- show that the activities we are monitoring/documenting violate citizens’ rights. Those rights that governments are required to protect under human rights law at the national or international level;
- to analyze whether the state is responsible for direct action, or for failure to prevent acts of rights violations, or for failure to punish those responsible for human rights violations;
- determine the widest range of the most effective solutions for the identified problems;
- Call the state to responsibility, proper performance of its duties, removal of obstacles leading to violation of human rights at the country level.
Purposes of using the received data:
- Identification of systemic country/regional problems leading to human rights violations and the consequences of such violations
- developing a strategy for country and international advocacy
- advocacy for specific human rights at the country level, such as reporting monitoring results to lobbying meetings with officials, and internationally, such as shadow reporting, individual communications to UN committees, and communications to UN Special Rapporteurs
- training partners to strengthen their positions and expand both their own network and create new coalitions to strengthen internal and external influence on our states.”
As part of the training program, many years of UnMode practice and the excellent guidance of our colleagues were used:
– “Human rights, documentation and advocacy. A guide for organizations of people who use drugs”. Author: Karin Kaplan
– “Know the rights, apply the laws.” Authors: Mikhail Golichenko, Timur Abdullaev, Boyan Konstantinov and Sandra Ka Hong Chu.