Ukrainian lawyer and specialist in international lobbying Veronika Velch became the director of the Ukrainian office of the international human rights organization Amnesty International.
This was reported by Veronika Velch.
"Today, Amnesty International Ukraine is at the moment of rethinking and implementing changes. At one time, the эscandalous report on August 4э demonstrated an unpleasant but obvious fact — Ukrainians are not heard enough. Our voice has been ignored at a point of greatest vulnerability, and this is unacceptable. Time to move on. And the way out is not to exclude ourselves from global human rights processes, but on the contrary, to strengthen our positions," said Velch.
According to her, the multimillion-dollar movement of Amnesty International is exactly such a platform where Ukraine should conduct a dialogue with international participants, involving them in the joint solution of extremely complex problems, in particular regarding the protection of prisoners of war, childrenʼs rights, the return of the bodies of the dead, freedom of speech in wartime and changes in architecture international institutions.
- On August 4, 2022, Amnesty International published a report in which it accused the Ukrainian army of violating humanitarian law and creating danger for civilians by placing military bases in residential areas, schools and hospitals.
- In response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called the report unfair, and the adviser to the head of the Office of the President Mykhailo Podolyak added that the only ones who put Ukrainian civilians at risk are the Russian troops.
- The Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov called Amnesty Internationalʼs report evidence of a "loss of adequacy" and an attempt to destroy his own authority.
- Due to the report, the head of the Ukrainian office of Amnesty International Oksana Pokalchuk resigned, and the head office of the organization was hit by a barrage of criticism.
- On August 7, 2022, Amnesty International apologized, but the secretary general of the organization Agnes Callamar said that the organization had been attacked by Ukrainian and Russian "trolls" in social networks. After that, Ukrainians launched a flash mob calling for Callamao to resign.
- On August 9, it was revealed that the Norwegian branch of Amnesty had lost more than 100 staff amid the scandal over the report, with 60 Norwegian members resigning in protest against the organization and another 40 staff resigning without explanation. On August 10, amid the scandal, the co-founder of the Swedish branch of Amnesty resigned. He worked there for almost 60 years.
- Later, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine reported that the report was based on the testimony of people who were under pressure in the occupied territories. Amnesty denied this.