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V. Police Abuse

As a drug user, police don’t consider me a person.  As a drug user, I have no rights.  The police can do anything to me. 
— Sasha T., injection drug user, Kherson, July 9, 2005

Some people don’t come to the needle exchange point at all.  The police were here yesterday.  They beat up one man, quite cruelly.  They asked the young man for money.  He said that he didn’t have any.  They planted shirka on him and then said, ‘Now you will pay.’  But he didn’t have any money at all, really.  So then they beat him up.
— Outreach worker, Dnipropetrovsk, July 12, 2005

Human Rights Watch documented police actions that violated fundamental human rights protections against torture and other forms of ill-treatment, and due process.  Numerous drug users, sex workers, and service providers reported that police had extorted money and information from drug users by applying physical and psychological pressure, including severe beatings, electroshock, partial suffocation with gas masks,83 and threats of rape, both at the time of arrest and during detention, and had directly interfered with the provision of HIV prevention information and services for drug users and sex workers.  Drug users and service providers reported that police planted drugs in their homes or on their person, and used this as evidence to arrest or abuse them.

International law unequivocally forbids the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by officials or persons acting in an official capacity.84  These prohibitions apply “not only to acts that cause physical pain but also to acts that cause mental suffering to the victim,”85 including intimidation and other forms of threats.86  International law also bars the use of statements obtained through torture as evidence, except against the person accused of torture.87  This prevents law enforcement officials from being rewarded for using torture to extract information.  It is also a way to ensure against self-incrimination, a right protected under international law.88  International law also guarantees the right to liberty and security of the person and protection from arbitrary detention.89

When police rape or otherwise physically assault drug users and sex workers, whether as punishment, to intimidate or coerce information, or otherwise, they violate basic protections against torture and ill-treatment, and rights to liberty and security of the person. When police use drug addiction as a tool to coerce testimony or extort money from drug users suffering from withdrawal, and deny medical assistance to drug users in withdrawal, they similarly violate basic provisions against torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment.

Police Abuse of Injection Drug Users

Severe violence and ill-treatment

Volodomyr D., twenty-seven, said that during the six years that he used drugs, Kherson police had detained him for extended periods of time and subjected him to serious physical and psychological abuse to extort money and information from him.  “It’s a terror campaign against drug users,” he said.  “They only know how to use harsh measures.” 

In 2002, Volodomyr was held in a pre-trial detention facility for a total of twenty-seven days.  He said that during this period:

The investigators and others would have ‘discussions’ with me.  They would bring in big guys, ‘sportsmen,’ to do the real punishing. . . . They detained me for ten days, then they released me, took me in a car to ‘take me home’ but then suddenly there was a new sanction for my arrest.  And I was detained for ten more days.  They repeated this procedure and again I was detained for seven days.

For some seven days they used physical measures to try to coerce me.  They beat me to unconsciousness.  They worked to physically and morally humiliate me. . . .  They tortured me.  They used the lastochka method.90  They put a gas mask over my head and handcuffed my hands to my legs.  Then they put a stick underneath my underarms and suspended me from two large safes.  They beat me in the stomach until I lost consciousness.  They beat me on the bottom of my feet with nightsticks. This is very painful and it doesn’t leave many traces. 

What’s even worse though is the mental torture.  They beat me until I was in so much pain and barely conscious.  Then they threatened to rape me.  They threatened to have another inmate rape me.  This is probably one of the worst things imaginable.   People kill themselves after something like this happens.91

Olga G., thirty, said that she faced constant harassment by police, who knew her to be a drug user.  In 2001 and 2004, Mykolaiv police entered her home and attempted to coerce information from her to assist in criminal investigations.  In the 2001 episode, she said that police entered her apartment through a window, placed a hand over her seven-year-old daughter’s mouth to muffle her screams and took Olga to the police station, leaving her daughter home alone. 

They took me through a side door, not the main entrance.  No one knew that I had come in.  [At the police station], they put a gas mask on me, over my head.  The gas mask has a long tube that comes off of the front.  They covered up the air vent so that I couldn’t breathe.  My hands were handcuffed together under my knees, so I was forced to bend over.  I was kept in this position for more than an hour.  They would turn off the air in the gas mask and beat me in the back, in the kidneys with a nightstick.  I couldn’t breathe at all when they did this.  They also threatened me, saying, ‘You’ll dance naked for us on this table.’  They swore at me.  They would pull up the gas mask sometimes a bit off my face so that the tube hung down over my face.  They would laugh at me and mock me.  Then they’d pull the mask down and turn off the air again.  They took me in at eleven a.m. or so and then let me go only at eight p.m.  They kept asking me, ‘where is this guy?’ and I kept telling them that I didn’t know.92 

Sasha T., forty-four, stopped using drugs in the summer of 2004, after twenty-five years of injecting opiates.  Though he no longer used drugs, he still frequently had problems with the police.  In the summer of 2004, Sasha was stopped and searched by police, who checked his pockets for syringes and for money.  He told Human Rights Watch, “The police pushed me on the ground and put handcuffs on me, and dragged me about 300 meters on the ground.  I was beaten so much that they had to call for medical help.  I was at the police station for the night and I was physically beaten all night.”93

Human Rights Watch met Yosep L., forty-six, at a needle exchange point in Mykolaiv.  Yosep said that he had been detained by the police several times.  He described a three-day detention in 2004:

[Police] put me in the lastochka position.  They put my hands in handcuffs and then suspended me from a hook in the wall. . . . They left me there like that for hours.   For four months afterwards I didn’t have any feeling in the top of my hands and in the top of my wrist.  They also beat me with their fists and with night sticks.  They kicked me too. All over.  In the abdomen, back, anywhere.  They also put a telephone cord around my penis and wound it tightly. It cut off the circulation.  Then they plugged the telephone cord into the wall and there was an electric current.  It wasn’t a high voltage but still it was really painful, there was still a strong current.94

Konstantin A., thirty, said that Dnipropetrovsk police often stopped him and asked for money and information about drug users.  In 2001, he was tortured while in police detention.  He told Human Rights Watch:

They handcuffed my arms to my ankles and then hung me up on a pole put under my armpits.  They beat me on the back and in the kidneys until I loss consciousness. I admitted to committing a robbery.  They wanted to convict me for four [robberies] if I didn’t admit to this one.

I was tortured for one day, and then they transferred me to the investigator.  When the beating was happening, I couldn’t control myself, I was hysterical.  I lost strength to go on talking.  I had some broken ribs, I had trouble breathing and coughing after they beat me.  I had some bruises and some swelling too.  Maybe now one could complain, but at that time I didn’t complain.  It would only bring more trouble.  I know cases in which people made a complaint and there were bad consequences.”95

Street children who use drugs may be especially vulnerable to abuse, as there are few people who can or will intervene to protect them.  Larissa Borisenko, a social worker with the NGO Virtus in Dnipropetrovsk, worked with a teenage drug user charged in 2005 with murder of a fifteen-year-old girl.  She told Human Rights Watch that there were witnesses who could support the teenager’s claim of innocence.  But when police arrested him, they tortured him.  She said, “And when they put electroshock to his head, he confessed to murder.”96

Planting evidence

Numerous drug users, advocates, and service providers to them said that police planted drugs in people’s homes or on their person as a basis to arrest and to extort money and information from them.  Andriy, an attorney with Way Home, a harm reduction program in Ilyochovsk, told Human Rights Watch, “Police here know all the drug users by face and know where they can plant drugs.  They do this to recruit informers.  They plant drugs and then arrest you and then say you have to work for us as informers.”97

Kherson police planted drugs on Volodomyr D., and presented him with a choice: “They told me that I had to agree to the crime of possession of shirka.  They said if I brought U.S.$3000 I would be released from the charges.”  Volodomyr also said that police warned him not to complain about this abuse. 

They warned me right away: ‘if you complain, we’ll bring a bunch of witnesses to show that we didn’t do this, and that you actually did it to one of our guys.’  They play a lot of psychological games.  They threatened to hurt my relatives, friends.  They said, ‘We’ll tell your friends that you gave us information about them.’  It’s easy for police to prove someone guilty.  No one will be able to endure the physical and moral torture that they inflict.98

Drug users as informants and official “witnesses”

Law enforcement officials interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that law enforcement agencies conducted periodic raids to identify drug users and to register them with the police and narcological dispensaries (specialized state facilities under the Ministry of Health that provide treatment for drug and alcohol addiction; also known as narcology centers).99  They also said that drug users were relied on as important sources of information about drug trafficking and other crimes.  Targeting drug users for registration and as informants may heighten HIV risk for drug users, who may fear seeking HIV prevention services, or taking measures to prevent HIV (such as carrying clean needles) that would expose them to arrest.

Valeriy Milnechenko, head of the drug enforcement agency, Kherson region, explained that police raids served both drug use prevention and police investigation functions.  He told Human Rights Watch, “We conduct raids in conjunction with other agencies.  These raids have a preventive character, to put people on the registry in the police facility.”  He explained that arresting drug users for drug possession would deter people from using drugs in the first instance, and would facilitate the prosecution of drug dealers.  Milnechenko said that drug users “participate in information for the detention of drug dealers . . . . We can get information about drug dealers from people who have been convicted.”100

Human Rights Watch interviewed police officer Andriy B. at a needle exchange point in Mykolaiv, where he and his partner were conducting an “intervention” to identify drug users and gather information from them about criminal activity (see also sub-section “Harassment of drug users at needle exchange points and at pharmacies,” below).101 Andriy B. told Human Rights Watch, “twice a year we conduct interventions to reveal drug users, like this one.  The interventions are one month long.”  Andriy B. said that drug users were good informants: “In order not to be taken to the police department, a drug user will tell you everything. . . . Pretty often drug users give you information.  They know it’s important to help us fight crime and to find criminals.”  Vasiliy S., Andriy B.’s partner, said that there was a 100 percent conviction rate for detainees.  “We detain about ten people a week. . . . Of ten people a week who are brought in, all of them are sentenced.  Once you are brought in, there is no way back out.”102 

Ukraine law requires that at least two witnesses be present during police searches of an individual’s person or his accommodations,103 but police often do not follow this procedure.  Attorneys who represented drug users, as well as social workers and drug users, themselves, reported that police often conducted searches without the required witnesses, or appointed witnesses who were not present at the search to testify in support of police actions.104  Viktoria Belova, a Dniproptrovsk attorney, told Human Rights Watch that drug users who had been convicted of drug offences were used as informants and as official witnesses by police.  According to Belova, “Police use the same witnesses for every drug case.  They take a few witnesses, and they give nonobjective testimony in favor of the police.  [During the court proceedings], I ask the witnesses whether they’ve ever been a witness at a trial before, and they usually say yes. . . . I see the same people for many years, always there as witnesses.”105

Using drug addiction to coerce testimony

Police use drug addiction as a tool to coerce testimony from drug users, who may succumb to pressure to admit to false charges when faced with painful withdrawal symptoms in custody.  According to Pavel Skala, who worked as a senior detective specializing in drug enforcement cases in Ukraine, “unfortunately, it is still common police investigation practice” to conduct questioning while drug users are suffering from withdrawal.106  Attorneys and social workers working with drug users in Ukraine have also reported that police intentionally use withdrawal as part of investigative measures to coerce incriminating testimony from drug users; extort money from drug users by threatening to detain them, forcing them to suffer withdrawal; and deny medical assistance to drug users going through withdrawal.107     

Bogdan S., an outreach worker with the NGO Club Eney in Kyiv, explained, “The drug users that come to our exchange points are drug addicted.  Even if at that moment he doesn’t have drugs, only clean syringes, under Ukrainian law he can be arrested for seventy-two hours to identify who he is.108  For a drug user, in the days of detention he will sign practically anything, say practically anything.  For this not to happen, people try to bribe police, even if there are no drugs with them.”109  Yevgeniy Kryvosheyev, Club Eney’s president, said that “If a drug user is locked up for some time without drugs, it’s not difficult to break his mentality.  He’ll sign anything.”110

Direct Police Interference with HIV Prevention Information and Services for Drug Users

Police are around this needle exchange point frequently.  They have stopped me a few times.  They look in my shopping bag . . . They ask me, ‘Where are you going? Why?’  They gave me warnings: ‘Don’t come around here. We don’t want to see you around here.’
— Marta V., injection drug user, twenty-three, Dnipropetrovsk, July 12, 2005

Staff at harm reduction programs in Odessa, Kherson, and Kyiv said that they had agreements with law enforcement officials recognizing their needle exchange services as part of legal HIV prevention programs.111  Some high-level police also expressed support for needle exchange.  Valeriy Milnechenko, head of the drug enforcement agency for Kherson region, told Human Rights Watch that his agency had an agreement supporting needle exchange services provided by the Kherson-based NGO Mongoose.112  Oleg Sakalov, head of the drug enforcement agency, Dnipropetrovsk region, said that “in principle, I regard [needle exchange services] positively,” but that they “absolutely need to be done under the control of law enforcement authorities.”113

In practice, however, local police often interfered with the delivery of HIV prevention information and services, including the provision of sterile syringes, to injection drug users.  Human Rights Watch documented numerous cases of injection drug users reporting being harassed, arrested, and sometimes severely beaten for possessing syringes, both sterile and used, at or near the site of needle exchange points. 

Many injectors interviewed by Human Rights Watch expressed reluctance to use syringe exchange services because they feared that they would be detained or beaten by the police.  Many injectors also reported that police interference with syringe exchange sites led them to engage in high-risk injecting practices, such as sharing and reusing syringes.  Human Rights Watch also documented several cases of police harassment of outreach workers providing HIV/AIDS prevention services to injection drug users.

Harassment of drug users at needle exchange points and at pharmacies

We give people booklets, ‘Know your rights!’  But the police beat people with the books, tear up the books in front of them.
— Outreach worker, Dnipropetrovsk needle exchange point, July 12, 2005

The goal of a needle exchange program is to reduce the risk of spreading HIV and other blood-borne diseases by ensuring that drug users always use sterile syringes to inject.  Recovery or exchange of used needles for sterile ones serves an important health function by removing contaminated needles from circulation, thus reducing their chances of reuse, and helping to ensure their safe disposal.  Needle exchange programs can also provide a bridge to drug treatment programs by providing clients with information, counseling, and referrals. 

Human Rights Watch found that Ukrainian police frequently stopped syringe exchange clients in the immediate vicinity of—and sometimes at—syringe exchange sites, and confiscated their syringes, using them both as a basis to charge drug users with drug possession and to extort money and information from them. 

When Human Rights Watch arrived at a needle exchange point in Mykolaiv, only outreach workers were there.  An outreach worker at the exchange said that ten minutes earlier, two policemen had come to the exchange, arrested a client, and beaten him up.  She added, “The police have been here two times already today.  The police are basically always around here.  They come here every day.  There are regular neighborhood police and drug enforcement agents as well. They stand around in plain clothes trying to look like drug users themselves.”114  According to the outreach worker, police detained people at the needle exchange points and also took clean needles from them.  As a result, drug users were “afraid of hanging around too long at the point, since the police are always close by. . . . The social workers around here warn the clients if the police are around or not.”115

During the time that Human Rights Watch was at the needle exchange point, several drug users came to get clean syringes, but made clear that regular police presence at the exchange point had sometimes deterred them from coming to the point, and made them nervous about remaining there any longer than necessary.  Oleg K. told Human Rights Watch, “there have been at least three or four times when I saw police standing near the needle exchange point and I didn’t come near it because the police were standing around.”  He continued, “Can I go now?  I really don’t like standing here too long.”116

Regina S., twenty-nine, had been arrested twice at the needle exchange, most recently one week before Human Rights Watch spoke with her.  She told Human Rights Watch:

I’m very nervous about staying near the needle exchange point because police stopped me on Friday. . .  I have been arrested before at this spot [the needle exchange point], last summer.  The same thing happened.  I was leaving another spot and there were drug users there and there were syringes on the ground.  The policeman came and picked up the syringe and said, ‘It’s yours,’ and charged me.  I was convicted under Article 14 and sent to the narcology center for a month.  I am afraid to carry syringes because of police.117

Shortly after Regina left the exchange point, Vasiliy S. and Andriy B., whom outreach workers identified as the two policemen who had been there earlier, returned.  They confirmed that they detained drug users at the needle exchange point, and rejected the idea that providing sterile syringes would prevent HIV among drug users.  The officers said that they would like to kill drug users, whom they considered inhuman.  Andriy B. explained how police prevented drug abuse, including by detaining drug users at the needle exchange point:

With the beginners, people who aren’t in the system, we try to explain and show the consequences of drug use and that people are killed because of drug use.  One-and-a-half weeks ago, we picked up a sixteen-year-old boy here [at the needle exchange point].  We put him in the car and we showed him drug users, how they look, what they look like.  He was just a beginner.  His friends treated him to drugs one or two times, and he came here to get information.118

In his efforts to teach the teenager the consequences of drug use, Andriy B. detained the teenager in the car for an extended period of time, and effectively barred him from obtaining harm reduction information and services for which he had come to the needle exchange point.

Oleg Sakalov, head of the drug enforcement agency, Dnipropetrovsk region, conceded that local police had interfered with drug users’ access to needle exchange points, but said that such problems were small and had been resolved.  He denied that police interfered with harm reduction efforts by targeting drug users present at needle exchange points, claiming that “the idea that they [police] are sitting and waiting for people just does not exist.”119  But outreach workers and clients of Dnipropetrovsk syringe exchange points said that police were frequently at syringe exchange points, and that police presence and abuse there deterred users from using these services.  As a result, many drug users who avoided syringe exchange points reused or shared syringes with other injectors. 

Denis P., thirty-three, who had been injecting opiates for twelve years, said that he had been detained by the police at the exchange point more than once, most recently the week prior to his interview with Human Rights Watch.  He understood that sharing needles posed a risk of HIV infection, but said that he sometimes avoided the needle exchange out of fear of arrest, and that he could not safely carry sterile syringes without being identified by police as a drug user.  He told Human Rights Watch:

Police take syringes and they throw them away.  The last time this happened was maybe a month ago.  I was without documents, and they searched me and found a syringe and money.  They threw away the syringe and took the money.  They beat me on the forehead and let me go.  Maybe this has happened three times, usually in the evening.  The patrol services are out in the evening.  This was a new syringe that they threw away. Police stop me and check my arms for tracks. . .  It’s better to walk in the street without a syringe because police can always stop you. . . . If you have a used syringe, it’s obvious you are a drug addict.  If it’s clean, you can say it’s for a normal injection, but even then they can look at your arms and see you’re a drug addict.120

In Kherson, Andriy T., twenty-seven, told Human Rights Watch that he preferred to get his needles from the needle exchange, but police presence near the exchange kept him from coming there.  He told Human Rights Watch, “I try to come here infrequently, two or three times a week.  I know that police are around here, looking out for me, and so I try to avoid coming around here.”  Two weeks prior to speaking with Human Rights Watch, Andriy had been stopped by the police.  “It was the kind of incident that would make me not want to come here.  I came here and got needles and police stopped me about two blocks away.  Police do whatever they want and humiliate you.  What am I supposed to do?  I could write a complaint against them and that complaint wouldn’t go anywhere.”121

Grigory V., thirty-seven, who did outreach work in a village outside of Mykolaiv city, told Human Rights Watch that drug users refused to bring their used syringes to the exchange.  He said that when he explained the exchange to drug users, they said, “We’re afraid.  We’re not going to do that.”  According to Grigory, drug users “don’t want to gather all syringes waiting for me to exchange them.  They’re afraid of police because there’s blood on the syringes and they could be convicted.”122  Leaving used needles in circulation partly defeats the object of a syringe exchange.

Pharmacies, which can legally sell syringes to adults in unrestricted numbers, are an important source of sterile syringes for drug users.  Human Rights Watch found, however, that in some cities, police patrolled pharmacies and targeted those who purchased syringes for arrest or other abuse, using possession of sterile syringes as justification to arrest drug users, and to extort money or information from them. 

Mikhail S., thirty-two, said that in Odessa, “police often patrol outside pharmacies and arrest drug users who have syringes.”  He said that “even yesterday I saw a police raid near a pharmacy,” and that he had been arrested and beaten by police outside a pharmacy in May 2004.  “These policemen simply walk in the area close to the pharmacy and they can pick out the drug users.  I had a brand new syringe in my back pocket and one policeman grabbed my hand and the other tried to pull the syringe from my pocket.”  Mikhail added, “I think these patrols [of pharmacies] encourage dangerous drug use.  Many times, I saw situations where drug users took syringes from the ground and cleaned them with rainwater and urine and then used them.  I personally saw clients come and select used syringes from the bucket [where people discarded contaminated needles].”123

Harassment of outreach workers

Ukraine government policy recognizes that the most effective and in some cases the only possible AIDS educators for members of marginalized groups, such as injection drug users, are their peers.124  But peer educators and others who reach out to marginalized groups are often held in the same contempt as the individuals with whom they work, and subjected to discrimination and violence at the hands of the government.  Several NGOs that work with drug users said that police abuse of outreach workers had abated in recent months as a result of concerted efforts on their part to educate police about their work.  But problems still remain: Human Rights Watch documented several cases of police abuse of outreach workers providing services to drug users. 

Outreach workers with Club Eney, a harm reduction program in Kyiv, said that they were often arrested, one as recently as two hours prior to meeting with Human Rights Watch.  Daniela Y. said that she had been arrested twice for having used syringes that had been exchanged. “I had a whole bag, about one hundred of them,” she said.  “The police came to the needle exchange point and arrested drug users . . . and then they took the outreach workers with them.  They didn’t let us make a call.  They were very abusive.   We had no chance to tell them who we were.  We were detained for about four hours.”125  Tomas L. told Human Rights Watch, “The police know us.  They may come say hello.  In other cases, they arrest our people.  Earlier, it was harder, but police bother us less now.”  When asked when he was last harassed while working at the needle exchange point, Tomas L. replied, “this morning.”126

Club Eney outreach workers said that they had an agreement with police and the mayor to distribute syringes, but local officials abused these agreements.  One outreach worker explained, “the situation with the police is very bipolar.  Higher officials are not a problem any more.  They understand the situation.  But minor officials can’t collect bribes if they cooperate with us.”127

Club Eney also had an agreement with each police district in Kyiv permitting syringe distribution during certain times.  Outreach workers acknowledged that in some districts, police did not come by during syringe exchange hours, crediting training by local authorities on harm reduction.128  Not all districts respected this agreement, however.  Bogdan S., an outreach worker with Club Eney, said that “very often, a police car comes and parks about twenty meters from us.  The duty shift basically know all the drug users, so they can simply watch and follow them.  It’s a really big obstacle.  There’s no direct pressure, but it destabilizes the situation.”129 

Outreach workers with Way Home in Odessa said that they usually carried a copy of an agreement signed by the head of police stating that the police would cooperate with Way Home’s harm reduction efforts, and an identification card stating that they were working with Way Home’s harm reduction program.  This agreement did not stop all police abuse of outreach workers, however.  Way Home staff said that although police “hinder our work much less” than they had in the past, there were still problems.  According to one staff member, the month prior to Human Rights Watch’s visit to Odessa, “police tried to beat up one of our outreach workers.  Outreach workers are all ex-drug users themselves, so they look like drug users.  Police tried to beat up the outreach worker, but he showed his identification documents and was released.”130

Harm reduction program staff in Mykolaiv likewise said that their efforts to educate police about harm reduction had helped reduce police abuse and arrest of outreach workers, but that police did still detain outreach workers.  The outreach coordinator for the NGO Exit, a harm reduction program in Mykolaiv, recalled that “there have been four incidents in the past six months were the police searched or detained outreach workers.”131 

Police Abuse of Sex Workers

Sex workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported being harassed and sometimes detained by police, who demanded money, information about drug users and other criminal suspects, and sex in exchange for release.  Sex workers also reported that police beat them and forced them to engage in degrading acts, such as sitting naked in the police station.  As a practical matter, because sex workers are easy targets for prosecution as prostitution is illegal, police face little risk of censure for these actions.132  Many sex workers migrate to Ukraine’s cities from villages in Ukraine or other countries in the region;133 their lack of official registration and identity documents required for legal residence and access to city services makes these sex workers more vulnerable to police abuse than their counterparts with registered residency. 

Anastasia P., twenty-three, said, “Police use their position to get sex for free.”  She told Human Rights Watch that in 2004, two policemen threatened to kill her if she refused to have sex with them.134  Tanya K., twenty-seven, said that she had been detained by police three times since she had begun working as a sex worker in 2004.  “The first time, I was forced to perform oral sex on three police officers.  They didn’t wear condoms.”135

Alexandra R., thirty-two, said that she paid police not to arrest her for prostitution.  She told Human Rights Watch, “I have constant interactions with police.  We have a money-based relationship.”136  Maria B., thirty-two, said, “The police detain me very often.  They take me to the police station.  They want money.  They want at least ten hryvna [U.S.$2], although it depends on the person asking.”137

Sex workers said that police targeted them to fulfill their periodic “work plans.”  Oksana M., thirty-one, told Human Rights Watch, “If it’s a low-level police officer, maybe we’ll have to pay a little bribe.  But if it’s a head guy, he’ll write you up.  You can’t bribe him because they have a work plan and will detain you.”138

Sex workers also said that police extorted false witness statements, and forced them to provide information about drug users and other crimes. “Since police know us and who and where we are, they sometimes come to us and force us to sign witness statements,” said Victoria F.  “For example, yesterday, when I was detained and I saw they [police] were beating those guys, I was forced to sign a statement.  Other girls were also forced to sign.  We didn’t even have time to read the document.”139  Maria told Human Rights Watch that police “demand information from us, information on drug users, who is stealing.  They are constantly demanding ‘cooperation.’”140

Sex workers said that the law on prostitution, as well as police disregard for sex workers more generally, made it impossible for them to file complaints about violence or abuse against them.141  Ivana S., twenty-eight, said that after she was anally raped by a client, “I told the other girls who work at this location about him.  I didn’t complain to police because I would just be arrested for prostitution.”142  Larisa A. said she had been gang raped by five men two months prior to meeting with Human Rights Watch in July 2005.  “After that, I went to the police station.  They brought the guys in.  When they told the police that I had been bought [had been paid to have sex], the police told me, ‘get out of here.’”143  Evgenia R., forty-three, said that when she tried to file a report with police after having been gang raped at gunpoint, the police told her, “You’re just upset because when they raped you, they didn’t pay you.”144

When she was pregnant in 2001, Larisa was detained for six days without police registering her presence or informing her family of her whereabouts, in plain violation of Ukrainian law.145  She said that police beat her severely with night sticks and with fists, and that she lost a lot of blood.  “My husband came and asked for me.  The police said that no one was registered by that name.  I could hear police saying that we can do whatever we want because she is not even registered. . .  . The procuracy official told the police, ‘She’s just a prostitute.  Why don’t you just take her in the yard because I bet she knows how to do a lot of good things.’”146 

The kinds of police abuse described above increases sex workers’ vulnerability to HIV in a number of ways.  First, forced or coerced sex creates a risk of physical trauma.  When the vagina or anus is dry and force is used, genital or anal injury are more likely, increasing the risk of transmission.  Forced oral sex may cause tears in the skin, also increasing the risk of HIV transmission.  Sex workers who face violence or abuse have limited capacity to negotiate condom use or safer sex.  And as the testimony above illustrates, in the face of violence and abuse from police, sex workers have little reason to expect that police will provide protection against rape or other violence committed against them.




[83] Partial suffocation with gas masks is a common form of torture in countries in the former Soviet Union, and its use against drug users and other detainees has been documented in recent investigations of police abuse in Ukraine.  See Amnesty International, Ukraine: Time for Action: Torture and Ill-Treatment in Police Detention, September 2005; Andriy Tolopilo, “Reforming Drug Policy of the NIS to Prevent the Spread of AIDS,” 2004 (Russian).  This type of torture is called "slonik" (“little elephant”) in Russian, a reference to the resemblance of the gas mask's hose to an elephant's trunk.

[84] Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture), articles 1, 2 (Ukraine ratified the Convention against Torture in 1987); International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), article 7 (Ukraine ratified the ICCPR in 1973).  The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms contains a similar provision in article 3 (Ukraine ratified the European Convention in 1997).  These prohibitions are reaffirmed in the Constitution of Ukraine, article 28, which states that “no one shall be subjected to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of punishment that violates his or her dignity.”

[85] Human Rights Committee, General Comment 20, Article 7 (Forty-fourth session, 1992), Compilation of General Comments and General Recommendations Adopted by Human Rights Treaty Bodies, U.N. Doc. HRI\GEN\1\Rev.1 at 30 (1994).  The Human Rights Committee is the United Nations body charged with monitoring implementation of the ICCPR.  See also Convention against Torture, article 1 (defining torture to include intentional acts that cause severe physical pain or mental suffering).

[86] Report of the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, U.N. General Assembly, U.N. Doc. A/56/156, July 3, 2001, Section IIA (finding that fear of physical torture may constitute mental torture, and that serious and credible threats to the physical integrity of the victim or a third person can amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, or even to torture, especially when the victim is in the hands of law enforcement officials).

[87] Convention against Torture, article 15.  See also Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons Under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, principle 21.

[88] ICCPR, article 14(3)(g).

[89] ICCPR, article 9.

[90] The lastochka (swallow) position is a form of body suspension in which the victim's hands are cuffed behind his or her back and attached to an iron bar or pipe, from which he or she hangs without the legs touching the ground.  In a variation on lastochka, the detainee is forced face down on the ground and his or her legs are tied tightly with a rope to the handcuffed hands. These positions cause acute pain in the joints, cut off the blood supply to the wrists and can dislocate arms or shoulders.

[91] Human Rights Watch interview, Kherson, July 9, 2005.

[92] Human Rights Watch interview, Mykolaiv, July 7, 2005.

[93] Human Rights  Watch interview, Kherson, July 9, 2005.

[94] Human Rights Watch interview, Mykolaiv, July 7, 2005.

[95] Human Rights Watch interview, Dnipropetrovsk, July 12, 2005.

[96]Human Rights Watch interview, Dnipropetrovsk, July 12, 2005.

[97] Human Rights Watch interview, Ilyochovsk, July 6, 2005.

[98] Human Rights Watch interview, Kherson, July 9, 2005.

[99] Drug treatment clinics (narcodispensaries) are required to officially register drug users referred to them for assistance, although in practice, they do not always do so. Police also maintain official drug user registries, which they routinely compare with those kept by state narcologists. Human Rights Watch interview with Anatoliy Vievskiy, head narcologist, Ukrainian Ministry of Health, July 18, 2005 (narcologists are physicians—usually psychiatrists—specializing in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction).  People registered for drug addiction at narcology clinics must report regularly for up to five years to clinics that can demand urine tests to prove that they are not using drugs.  Ukrainian law bars registered drug users from holding drivers’ licenses and from a number of occupations.  Human Rights Watch interview with Yuriy Chumachenko, physician, Ilyochovsk narcology center, Ilyochovsk, July 6, 2005.  Registration requirements are online at: http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?nreg=z0534-97

[100] Human Rights Watch interview, Kherson, July 8, 2005.

[101] Andriy B. and Vasily S. are pseudonyms.

[102] Human Rights Watch interview, Mykolaiv, July 7, 2005.

[103] Code of Criminal Procedure, sections 181 (requiring that “A search and confiscation are to be undertaken in the presence of two witnesses and the person occupying the space; if this person is absent, a representative from the building authorities or the local government must also be present.”); 191 (“A search must be performed in the presence of two witnesses, and, as a rule, in the daytime.”).

[104] See, e.g., Human Rights Watch interview with Volodomyr D., Kherson, July 9, 2005; Human Rights Watch interview with Vova Zackipny, legal assistant, Life Plus, Odessa, July 5, 2005; Human Rights Watch interview with Olga G., Mykolaiv, July 7, 2005; Human Rights Watch interview with Viktoria Belova, attorney, Virtus, July 12, 2005. 

[105] Human Rights Watch interview, Dnipropetrovsk, July 12, 2005.

[106] E-mail communications from Pavel Skala, major of police (in reserve since November 2004) and policy and advocacy manager, International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Ukraine, to Human Rights Watch, December 2, 2005, and January 29, 2006.  Skala worked as a senior detective officer in charge of special cases for the drug enforcement department, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, from July 1998 to June 2004.

[107] Andriy Tolopilo, “Reforming Drug Policy of the NIS to Prevent the Spread of AIDS,” 2004 (Russian).

[108] In fact, Ukrainian law permits investigating bodies, on their own authority, to hold a person suspected of a criminal offense for up to seventy-two hours.  If police wish to detain the suspect further, within the initial seventy-two hours they must bring the suspect before a judge.  Otherwise, the suspect must be freed or released on bail.  Constitution of Ukraine, section 29; Ukraine Code of Criminal Procedure, sections 106, 165-2.  

[109] Human Rights Watch interview, Kyiv, July 8, 2005.

[110] Human Rights Watch interview, Kyiv, July 8, 2005.

[111] Staff at harm reduction programs in Odessa, Kyiv, and Kherson said that their programs were supported by law enforcement.  Human Rights Watch interview with Elena Kuleshova, harm reduction services coordinator, Way Home, Odessa, July 4, 2005; Human Rights Watch interview with Bogdan S., outreach worker, Club Eney, Kyiv, July 14, 2005; Human Rights Watch interview with Yevheniya Lysak, director, Mongoose, Kherson, July 8, 2005.

[112] Human Rights Watch interview with Valery Milnechenko, Kherson, July 8, 2005.

[113] Human Rights Watch interview with Oleg Sakalov, Dnipropetrovsk, July 13, 2005.

[114] Human Rights Watch interview, Mykolaiv, July 7, 2005.

[115] Human Rights Watch interview, Mykolaiv, July 7, 2005.

[116] Human Rights Watch interview, Mykolaiv, July 7, 2005.

[117] Human Rights Watch interview, Mykolaiv, July 7, 2005.

[118] Human Rights Watch interview with Vasiliy S. and Andriy B. [pseudonyms], police officers, Mikolaev, July 7, 2005.

[119] Human Rights Watch interview, July 13, 2005.

[120] Human Rights Watch interview, Dnipropetrovsk, July 12, 2005.

[121] Human Rights Watch interview, Kherson, July 1, 2005.

[122] Human Rights Watch interview, with Grigory V. Mykolaiv, July 6, 2005.

[123] Human Rights Watch interview, Odessa, July 4, 2005.

[124] See, e.g., “National Program to Ensure HIV Prevention, Care, and Treatment for HIV-infected and AIDS Patients for 2004-2008,” and “Strategy Concept of the Government Actions Aimed at Preventing the Spread of HIV/AIDS up to Year 2011,” both approved by Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, March 4, 2004, No. 264.

[125] Human Rights Watch interview, Kyiv, July 14, 2005.

[126] Human Rights Watch interview, Kyiv, July 18, 2005.

[127] Human Rights Watch interview with Boris K., Kyiv, July 14, 2005.

[128] Human Rights Watch interviews, Kyiv, July 14, 2005.

[129] Human Rights Watch interview, Kyiv, July 14, 2005.

[130] Human Rights Watch interview, Odessa, July 4, 2005.

[131] Human Rights Watch interview, Mykolaiv, July 6, 2005.

[132]Individual prostitution with adults was criminalized in September 2001 and then decriminalized in January 2006. Prior to 2001, individual prostitution with adults was covered only under the Administrative Code, violation of which incurred a small fine. The 2001 amendments increased the penalties for prostitution, including by increasing fines, subjecting those convicted of individual prostitution to correctional labor, and subjecting those convicted of certain prostitution-related offences to prison sentences. See Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offences, article 181-1; Criminal Code of Ukraine, article 303. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has observed that the 2001amendments increased sex workers' fear of contact with police as well as service providers, and made it more difficult to conduct outreach work with sex workers. USAID, USAID/Ukraine HIV/AIDS Strategy 2003-2008, October 2003, p. 17.

[133] CEEHRN, Sex Work, HIV/AIDS, and Human Rights in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, p. 102.

[134] Human Rights Watch interview, Kherson, July 5, 2006.

[135] Human Rights Watch interview, Kherson, July 8, 2005.

[136] Human Rights Watch interview, Odessa, July 5, 2005.

[137] Human Rights Watch interview, Odessa, July 5, 2005.

[138] Human Rights Watch interview, Kherson, July 1, 2005.

[139] Human Rights Watch interview, Kherson, July 8, 2005.

[140] Human Rights Watch interview, Odessa, July 5, 2005.

[141] See also CEEHRN, Sex Work, HIV/AIDS, and Human Rights in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia  (finding that sex workers in region have limited or nonexistent legal protection from consistent violence they face).

[142] Human Rights Watch interview, Kherson, July 8, 2005.

[143] Human Rights Watch interview, Kherson, July 8, 2005.

[144] Human Rights Watch interview, Kherson, July 1, 2005.

[145] Human Rights Watch interview, Kherson, July 8, 2005.  Ukrainian law requires that a detainee’s relatives be informed immediately of his or her detention.  Constitution of Ukraine, article 29; Ukraine Code of Criminal Procedure, section 106.

[146] Human Rights Watch interview, Kherson, July 8, 2005.


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