PRESS RELEASE: Ukrainian Film Institute announces the Tribunal Manifesto, which launches an all-Ukrainian media campaign to protect rights and freedoms
The Ukrainian Film Institute announces the Tribunal Manifesto, which launches an all-Ukrainian media campaign to protect the rights and freedoms of persons liable for military service, military personnel, veterans, families of the fallen, missing, captured defenders, and imprisoned soldiers.
With the Tribunal Manifesto project, we are starting a search for truth and justice together with society to determine where the line is drawn when martial expediency and the legitimacy of restricting the rights and freedoms of citizens in Ukraine degenerates into martial law authoritarianism and impunity of state structures, encroaches on basic unconditional constitutional rights and freedoms, and degrades human dignity.
Ukrainians are fighting a fierce struggle against an external enemy not to lose their right to live in a democratic, legal and social state right now.
The self-restriction of society's rights, freedoms and self-censorship only feeds the sense of permissiveness of those who cynically see this as an opportunity to enrich themselves and strengthen their local power by taking advantage of the people's grief.
During mobilization, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are approximately 75% composed of ordinary citizens who put on military uniforms only to defend their homeland and expect to be treated properly, have their rights and freedoms respected, and receive comprehensive support from the state, which they have earned and may lose the most valuable thing they have at any time - their lives. Instead, many of them face incompetence, helplessness, arbitrariness, cynicism, neglect, and a desire to make money on their problems.
All of this is covered by the words "it's not the right time" and "the war will write everything off".
It is precisely because we, filmmakers and journalists, are always "on time" and record events and documents rather than write them off into oblivion that is why we proclaimed this Manifesto.
Let me remind you of the words from Article 55 of the Constitution of Ukraine: "Everyone has the right to protect his or her rights and freedoms from violations and unlawful encroachments by any means not prohibited by law." This right is unconditional even during martial law.
The Ukrainian Film Institute is not a human rights organization, although we are familiar with it. Our goal is to help all those in need to find defenders if you don't have any yet, and secondly, to help move forward the protection of the rights and freedoms of people liable for military service, military personnel, veterans and families of fallen heroes when all other methods are ineffective or have not worked at all.
Our weapon is media publicity in covering cases and searching for cause and effect relationships to find out the nature of these erroneous phenomena and how to prevent them in the future if possible.
The fact is that war and any mobilization activities are not a natural disaster. Behind every event there is always a chain of people with specific names and positions who are responsible before the law.
That is why we are launching media projects first as part of the Tribunal Manifesto:
A feature-length documentary film, where we will explore the nature of martial authoritarianism, the reasons why society restricts its rights and freedoms, censorship and self-censorship under martial law, and its consequences today. Is there a real danger for us to raise such questions in the film and in society? This will be a process and observation film.
A documentary series where we will investigate the most high-profile cases of violation of the rights, freedoms, humiliation of the dignity of conscripts, military personnel, veterans and families of fallen heroes during the ten years of war, which led to physical violence, injury or even death.
A news platform on social media where we will report on a daily basis all the cases of violations of rights and freedoms that we have learned about and are working on ourselves, but which will not be included in a series or film.
We will launch the other projects Media Case Catalog, Archiving of Online Content about the War, and Research Studies later.
Without your support, our projects under the Manifesto will not be implemented, so I invite all concerned military personnel, veterans, families of fallen heroes, citizens, lawyers, advocates, human rights defenders, human rights and other NGOs, journalists, filmmakers, scientists, entrepreneurs, businesses to join our All-Ukrainian Mutual Aid Community, where at the local level we will help each other to protect the rights and freedoms of our Defenders.
Since the Ukrainian Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization, we have no relation to any party or oligarchs, so we need your financial support for our activities.
Please make donations to protect the rights and freedoms of Ukrainian soldiers. We will provide them with our human rights rear. This will be another contribution to our common Victory!
Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Heroes!
The Manifesto website: www.manifest-tribunal.org.ua
Website of the Ukrainian Film Institute: www.filminstitute.org.ua
The Ukrainian Film Institute is a non-profit organization established in Irpin, Kyiv region, in 2015, which studies the film industry, the conditions for Ukrainian cinema to enter the global market, legal protection of filmmakers and the creation of films on topics that are important to society. Our motto is "Global Cinema for the Society of the Future". The Tribunal Manifesto project was launched and is being implemented to draw the attention of the Ukrainian and international community to the problems with the observance of the rights and freedoms of our conscripts and military citizens in Ukraine during the Russian-Ukrainian war.
For more information, comments, and interviews, please contact the author, leader of the Tribunal Manifesto project, and executive director of the Ukrainian Film Institute Denys Maslikov:
Tel: +380 99 974 62 36
Email: info@filminstitute.org.ua