Vitaliy Shabunin
Vitaliy Shabunin is the founder of Anti-Corruption Action Centre, a non-profit civil society organisation consisting of experts from legal, media and civic-political sectors which aims to fight corruption as a root cause of the key state-building problems in Ukraine. The organisation is politically neutral, rather focusing on advocacy to ensure that specific persons engaged in corruption are brought to justice.
Before the escalation of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by the Russian Federation, the key concerns regarding the situation of human rights defenders (HRDs) in Ukraine were characterised mainly by systemic impediments to the rights to freedom of assembly, association, and personal liberty. In many cases, HRDs were subjected to intimidation, harassment, and attacks, while violence against journalists was tolerated by the authorities. The situation was exacerbated by pervasive corruption in all branches of government and limitations on workers’ rights to strike.
