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2024-03-17

Hanna Kuczyńska joins panel discussion after the screening of the Oscar-winning documentary “20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL”

Since May 20, 2022, Mariupol has been under Russian occupation. To this day, it is virtually impossible to fully reconstruct the extent of the destruction that the city experienced and the number of victims.

It is still unknown how many people were forcibly resettled to Russia. The stories of the survivors themselves help us understand the dimension of the tragedy. Their testimonies, like Mstislav Chernov’s film, allow us to see the terrible reality of life in Mariupol under siege and during occupation.

In Poland, the testimonies of survivors are documented by four organizations – the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, OPORA in Poland, Project Sunflowers and the Rafał Lemkin’s Center for Documenting Russian Crimes in Ukraine at the Pilecki Institute. However, different methodologies lead to a common goal, which is to provide people affected by international crimes with access to justice. And this takes various forms – a court trial, support in returning to social life or recognition of historical truth.

After the screening of the Oscar-winning documentary 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL on March 17, 2024, there was a debate with representatives of these organizations about the consequences of the siege and what life is like in occupied Mariupol.

The meeting was hosted by Agnieszka Lichnerowicz and the speakers included:

• Olga Kotsiuruba from the OPORA Civic Network and the OPORA Foundation in Poland

• Prof. Hanna Kuczyńska from the Project Sunflowers and the Department of Criminal Law of the Institute of Legal Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences

• Yulia Miziukina from the Rafał Lemkin’s Center for Documenting Russian Crimes in Ukraine

• Elena Wasylew from the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights

By Maciej Trojanowski0 Comments
News
2024-03-08

Ewa Hofmańska receives Epiq Woman Award for Justice and Advocacy granted by the New York City Bar Association

We are thrilled to announce that Ewa Hofmańska, President and Co-Founder of Foundation Sounflowers that runs Project Sunflowers, has been honored with the esteemed Epiq Woman Award for Justice and Advocacy during the 5th Annual International Law Conference On the Status of Women, organized by the New York City Bar Association.

Ewa’s dedication to supporting communities affected by conflict, particularly in Ukraine, has been instrumental in driving our mission forward. As part of the Project Sunflowers, she has spearheaded initiatives to collect information about evidence of international crimes committed in Ukraine and victims of the war, organise open webinars to discuss the legal and social aspects of armed conflict, expand the network of organisations supporting Ukrainian refugees in the countries covered by the Project, and search for centres of professional psychological support for survivors of the war in Ukraine.

Her recognition with this award underscores the incredible impact of her work and serves as a testament to her unwavering commitment to justice and advocacy. As an organization, we are immensely proud to have Ewa leading our efforts and congratulate her on this well-deserved honor.
By Maciej Trojanowski0 Comments
News
2024-03-08

Hanna Kuczyńska joins UNHCR meeting on mental health support for Ukrainian refugees

On the 8th March 2024 Hanna Kuczyńska, Board Member of the Project Sunflowers, took part in the meeting organized by the UNHCR Mental Health & Psychosocial Support Network. MHPSN it is a growing global platform for connecting people, networks and organizations, for sharing resources and for building knowledge related to mental health and psychosocial support both in emergency settings and in situations of chronic hardship. This meeting’s focus was safety of refugees, allocating appropriate resources and considering including mental health and psychosocial support in the NGOs’ programs (e.g. psychological first aid training), key concepts and best practices in mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) in response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis.

In the meeting active participation took: Przemysław Marszał from UNHCR, Katarzyna Nowakowska from Feminoteka, Elena Wasylew from Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Olia Kotsiuruba from Fundacji Opora, Hanna Kuczyńska from Project Sunflowers and Anna Rzym from International Rescue Committee.

During the meeting supporting efforts for justice for victims were discussed, such as providing information to investigative authorities in Poland and Ukraine as well as to the ICC, giving voice to refugees who wish to testify about the injustices they have experienced, historical memory, raising awareness in Poland about the consequences of crimes and their impact on the lives of victims and entire communities (Physical health, psychological consequences, economic situation); disseminating land to ensure access to the justice system and the identification and rehabilitation of victims; documenting organizations: Lemkin Center; Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Opora, Project Sunflowers.

By Maciej Trojanowski0 Comments
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Webinar
2024-02-12

Reparative Justice III: Difficulties in Listening to and Hearing Traumatized Witnesses / Victims / Survivors

This International Center for the Study, Prevention and Treatment of MultiGenerational Legacies of Trauma webinar series is held in collaboration with Project Sunflowers. It is a third in a series, following I: a conceptual introduction to reparative justice and II. key groups of traumatized victims. This time the webinar will focus on elements of the conspiracy of silence ubiquitously present after trauma, harmful both to the victims and society. Whereas society has a moral obligation to share its members’ pain, professionals and investigators of all related disciplines have, in addition, a professional, contractual obligation. When we fail to listen, explore, understand, and help, we too inflict the “trauma after the trauma”, or “the ‘second injury’ to victims” by maintaining and perpetuating the conspiracy of silence. The webinar will report and elaborate on findings detailing the multiple ways professional listening is compromised and its implications to reparative justice.  Participants are urged to view the earlier webinars on this series prior to attending this one.

Link to the recording of the webinar Reparative Justice I: https://reportwarcrime.org/massive-trauma-and-the-healing-role-of-reparative-justice/

Link to the recording of the webinar Reparative Justice II: https://reportwarcrime.org/reparative-justice-ii-challenges-of-listening-when-interviewing-traumatized-witnesses/

Ukrainian-English interpretation will be provided.

Presentation will be given by dr Yael Danieli (clinical psychologist, traumatologist, victimologist and psychohistorian, Dr. Danieli is Founder and Executive Director of the International Center for the study, prevention and treatment of MultiGenerational Legacies of Trauma; Director, Group Project for Holocaust Survivors and their Children and Past-President, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies) and dr Yurii Belousov (head of the War Crimes Department at the Prosecutor General’s Office in Ukraine (PGO); former head of the Department for Combating Violations of Human Rights in the Law Enforcement and Penitentiary Sectors and the PGO’s specialized Unit for Combating Torture) will be the discussant. The webinar will be moderated by dr Veronika Plotnikova (head of the Coordination Center for the Support of Victims and Witnesses of the Prosecutor General’s Office in Ukraine; co-author the practical commentary on the Code of Professional Ethics of Prosecutors and a trainer in the Training Center of Prosecutors of Ukraine, and national expert of projects of Council of Europe).

Link to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OAanaRA_QzSObSkyyOuoEQ#/registration

By Maciej Trojanowski0 Comments
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Webinar
2024-01-08

Reparative Justice II: Challenges of Listening when Interviewing Traumatized Witnesses

This International Center for the Study, Prevention and Treatment of Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma webinar is held in collaboration with Project Sunflowers. It is second in a series, following a primarily conceptual introduction to reparative justice. Here we answer its call for specialized training for professionals and others engaging with victim/survivors of war’s massive trauma to help heal and protect both victim/survivors and themselves from re/traumatization of sharing traumatic experiences. This international multidimensional, multidisciplinary webinar precedes the teaching/training process of potential interviewers about some of the main populations they would collect evidence from or about. These include (deported) children and their family members, victims of conflict-related sexual violence, torture victims, refugees, prisoners of war and members of the military.

Ukrainian-English interpretation will be provided

To take part in the webinar, please, register: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7JBJfvKpQcCbzl0Fb7Hzpg#/registration

By Maciej Trojanowski0 Comments
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Webinar
2023-12-14

Legal and Social Consequences of Crimes of International Law in Ukraine

On behalf of all organisers and partners of the conference on Legal and Social Consequences of International Crimes Committed in Ukraine, which is organised on the occasion of the 75th  anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Project Sunflowers invites you to take part in this event (online). The conference will take place on December 14, 2023. 

Link to remote participation: 
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6qhIX_uJTGmBXny8KAUMIg#/registration 

Please, find below the program of the event. Hope you will join us! 

By Maciej Trojanowski0 Comments
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Webinar
2023-11-14

Join the ICC as an Independent Consel

Register and join our webinar on Tuesday, 14 November 2023, at 17:00 CET. This time Pieter Vanaverbeke, acting chief of the Counsel Support Section (CSS) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) will encourage every lawyer to join the ICC as independent legal counsel here. The webinar is a joint event of the Project Sunflowers and the EU Pravo-Justice Project.
 

Pieter Vanaverbeke is responsible for, inter alia, the implementation and application of all aspects of the ICC’s Legal Aid Policy as well as the 360 degrees service provision to all Counsel (and team members) active before the Court. Before moving to the CSS in 2015, he has been working at the Court since 2005 in various functions and sections, including the position of Legal Coordinator in the Office of the Director of the Division of Judicial Services and has been deployed to situation countries (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of Uganda) for a prolonged duration (from 2006 – 2009). Pieter Vanaverbeke holds a Master’s Degree in International and National Public law. 

The CSS is in charge of centralizing and coordinating all assistance provided to counsel by the Court; and also provides logistical and administrative assistance. The Section also manages the Court’s programme of legal aid for indigent defendants and victims and provides administrative assistance to the Court’s Disciplinary Organs. The CSS is responsible for the following functions, among other: 

  • assisting persons entitled to legal assistance under the Statute and the Rules to secure such assistance; 
  • managing the Court’s programme of legal aid for indigent defendants and victims; 
  • maintaining the Court’s Lists of Counsel, Assistants and Professional Investigators; 
  • rendering logistic and administrative services to all Counsel acting before the Court, their team members and representatives of states, in order to facilitate their activities before the Court
  • facilitating the Court’s Disciplinary Organs’ for counsel elections and appointments as well as the process of designation of members of the Advisory Committee on Legal Texts; 
  • interacting with Universities and other external stakeholders relating legal profession in order to increase awareness and understanding of the work of the Court; 
  • coordinating and providing relevant internal and external training events for Counsel. 

The webinar will be conducted in English and simultaneous translations into Ukrainian will be available.

To take part in the webinar, please, register: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6–azLxCRDejcTLNdQkW0w#/registration
By Maciej Trojanowski0 Comments
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Webinar
2023-10-30

Massive Trauma and the Healing Role of Reparative Justice

Please, register and join our webinar on Monday, October 30, 2023, at 18:00-20:00 CET, that this time focuses on Massive Trauma and the Healing Role of Reparative Justice here. This will be the first in a series of webinars organised by the Project Sunflowers in cooperation with the International Center for MultiGenerational Legacies of Trauma

First in a series, this webinar emphasizes the need for a multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary, integrative framework for understanding and engaging with victim/survivors of massive trauma and its aftermath. It will first describe how victim/survivors, their families and communities are affected by mass atrocities, their reactions, concerns, and needs for reparative justice primarily from the psychosocial perspective, considering reparative justice a necessary component among the post-trauma healing processes. Reparative justice acknowledges fully that it is in an ongoing relationship with victim/survivors and views not only the outcome but, sometimes even more importantly, its process as crucial to their experience of justice as part of their healing process from the massive trauma and tragedies they have endured. The webinar will then examine victim/survivors’ actual experiences with/in the international criminal justice system.

The speakers for this unique webinar will be dr Yael Danieli and dr Philipp Ambach, and the meeting will be moderated by dr Marina Lostal.

Dr. Yael Danieli is a clinical psychologist, traumatologist, victimologist and psychohistorian. Dr. Danieli is Founder, Executive Director and Senior Representative to the United Nations of the International Center for the study, prevention and treatment of MultiGenerational Legacies of Trauma; Director, Group Project for Holocaust Survivors and their Children and Past-President, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. She has participated in creating all key international law instruments on behalf of victims’ rights and optimal care.

Dr Philipp Ambach is the Chief of the Victims Participation and Reparations Section at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Dr. Ambach worked as a legal adviser to the Judges of the Appeals Chamber at the International Criminal Tribunals both for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. A guest lecturer in international criminal and humanitarian law at various legal institutions, he has published several academic papers in international criminal law. 
Dr Marina Lostal is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Law of the University of Essex (UK). Dr. Lostal specialises in the rights of victims in international criminal law, the protection of cultural heritage in armed conflict, and animal law; fields where she has published widely. She has worked as a consultant for several organisations such as the ICC, UNESCO, Geneva Call and the Colombian Special Jurisdiction for Peace.  

The webinar will be conducted in English and simultaneous translations into Ukrainian will be available.

To take part in the webinar, please, register here:  https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ED0WV3qxS660Z9D7NW9tyg#/registration

By Maciej Trojanowski0 Comments
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Webinar
2023-09-20

The Crime of Agression Before the ICC

On the 20th of September 2023 the informative session was held on “The Crimes of Aggression before the ICC”. The lecture was given by Professor Patrycja Grzebyk (Associate Professor at the University of Warsaw), a specialist in the area of international criminal law and author of the monograph “Criminal Responsibility for the Crime of Aggression” (Routledge 2013). During the presentation she referred to several questions and problems: Why is it so difficult to initiate ICC jurisdiction over a crime of aggression? What does the UN Security Council have to do with it? Who can be held accountable for the crime of aggression? What is the relationship between the crime of aggression and other international crimes under the Rome Statute? The meeting was moderated by Professor Hanna Kuczyńska and was a joint event of the Project Sunflowers and the EU Project Pravo-Justice.

By Maciej Trojanowski0 Comments
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Webinar
2023-07-20

Environmental Harm in Ukraine and the Crime of Ecocide

On the 20th of July 2023 the informative session was held on “Environmental Harm in Ukraine and the Crime of Ecocide”. The lectures was given by Dr. Matthew Gillett, who works as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Essex. During the webinar Dr. Giller spoke about ecocide definitions existing in the literature and their advantages and disadvantages, demanding either willful or wanton commission of such a crimes or referring either to enumerated or non-enumerated list of criminal acts. He also indicated the problems with proving the commission of such crimes and relevant types of evidence, including inter alia: official information or company records, military orders, intercepted conversations or insider witnesses. Dr. Gillet is an experienced lawyer who has investigated and prosecuted international crimes for over 15 years. He is also a UN Special Mandate holder in Human Rights. Matthew is one of the initiators of Project Sunflowers.

The meeting was moderated by Professor Paweł Wiliński, Chairman of the Foundation Sunflowers and was a joint event of the Project Sunflowers and EU Project Pravo-Justice.

By Maciej Trojanowski0 Comments