Justice for Victims in Ukraine

2023-24 Scale-up project

Project presentation

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee has long experience in implementing projects on documentation and transitional justice in Chechnya and Ingushetia in Russia’s North Caucasus. To date, it implements its best practice of transitional justice for victims of hostilities which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity in the North Caucasus, Ukraine, and Belarus.

The Documentation and Accountability Hub (DAH) is NHC’s main commitment towards the work with international justice and accountability, combating impunity, and preserving accurate historical memory. They collect and analyze evidence of violations of international criminal law and human rights law in an online Database (IDOC) in cooperation with the CILRAP’s Case Matrix Network (CMN) and several local partners.

This work enables the NHC to actively apply transitional justice mechanisms in the fight against impunity. Its projects ensure the efficient gathering and processing of large amounts of information through the utilization of effective documentation methods and capacity building of local partners.

Organization presentation

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee is a human rights organisation based in Oslo, Norway, supporting civil society and fighting impunity in Europe and Central Asia.

The project is based on a cooperation between prosecutor's offices of Ukraine (including Crimea), the Center for International Law Research and Policy/Case Matrix Network (Belgium), the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Truth Hounds (Ukraine) and the “5AM Coalition” of 36 local Ukrainian initiatives. It started in 2016 and has been evolving since then.

Impact

"Shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the need to systematize evidence was clear. The I-DOC system is the most optimal tool. We are grateful to the NHC for the joint work to analyse material and build cases against culprits to defend justice."

Olha Reshetylova, Co-founder, coordinator of the direction War and Justice, Media Initiative for Human Rights