Human Rights Protection Group “SICH”

Human Rights Protection Group "SICH" is the successor of the public initiative 4REVA - an association of caring activists around the protection of the rights of those illegally detained in the case of "Dnipropetrovsk terrorists" in 2012. In 2014, SICH began to defend the rights of the beaten and detained Dnepropetrovsk Euromaidan activists. Since July 2014, SICH is officially registered as an NGO. Since February 10 2016, SICH is a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union for Human Rights (UHHRU). Since February 2016, the Center for Strategic Cases has been operating at “SICH”, within the framework of which SICH lawyers defend the interests of clients in national and European courts. In January 2017 SICH were amongst the group of Ukrainian organizations that founded Coalition Against Torture in Ukraine. Operating from Dnipro in central Ukraine, SICH opened an office in Kramatorsk in March 2018. SICH's mission is to promote the respect for legal rights and freedoms, respect for life, honor and dignity in Ukrainian law and practice. Prior to the 2022 war, SICH’s mainly worked with comprehensive legal assistance to victims of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine including veterans, IDPs, members of the families of diseased and missing persons, former hostages, victims of torture, volunteers, civilians of the conflict zone. In the midst of war and humanitarian crisis, SICH continues to document human rights violations and assist victims, but also provides more general legal assistance as well as humanitarian response.