Voices of Occupation advocacy campaign launches tour across Europe
Ex-prisoners of the Kremlin regime announced a pan-European civil advocacy project The Voices of Occupation.
Roman Sushchenko, Volodymyr Zhemchuhov, Ihor Kozlovsky, and Pavlo Hryb will visit Prague, Paris, and Brussels to hold a series of interrelated advocacy events on April 22-30. Also, as part of the campaign, a play will premier honoring the memory of the victims of the Russian invasion, called Evacuation 2022, directed by Olha Danyliuk.
The advocacy campaign is launched in cooperation with the European Values Research Center and with the assistance of the Prague Center for Civil Society and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
During the week-long tour to Brussels, Paris, and Prague, which will last from April 22 through April 30, members of the Platform will hold a number of meetings with politicians, experts, and public figures.
"We will talk with our Western partners about the urgency of creating a special targeted EU program aimed at reintegration, social adaptation, and rehabilitation of released political prisoners and civilian hostages. In addition, the Platform will propose specific mechanisms to protect the rights of war crime victims," said Ihor Hryb, chief of the Platform for the Release of Political Prisoners.
"War is an evil that knows no bounds: 97% of targets in Ukraine are civilians. Russia targets civilians to sow chaos and terror, although the more we feel despair, the more motivated we will be to overcome it," believes the author of the Evacuation 2022 play, Olha Danyliuk.
The performance will be held:
● April 24, 18:00 Scout Institute, Old Town Square ¼, Prague
● April 26, 12:15 Station Europe, Place du Luxembourg, Ixelles, Brussels
● April 28, 19:00 Cultural Center of the Embassy of Ukraine in France, 22 Avenue de Messine, 75008, Paris
Memo:
The Platform for the Release of Political Prisoners is a charity non-profit founded in 2017 to pursue charitable and human rights activities in the interests of the Kremlin’s political prisoners, civilian hostages, prisoners of war, and their families.
The organization spreads awareness about the plight of Russia’s political prisoners and civilian hostages among key decision makers, both domestically and internationally, through media, grassroots activism, advocacy campaigns, meetings with relevant authorities, etc.