About Foundation

Human and Law Charitable Foundation was
established in 2020 for supporting activities in
the field of human rights and advocating the
interests of society.

Before the war, the Foundation’s programs were:
1. Human Rights in Ukraine
2. Human and Law TV program on Espreso TV
3. Targeted financial assistance to former Soviet political prisoners.
When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the Board decided to direct the Foundation’s efforts to help the Ukrainian Armed Forces and civilian victims of the war.
The Foundation has united the efforts of volunteers from Ukraine, the USA, Germany, Poland, Israel, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Australia, and other countries. Public activists, human rights activists, businesspersons, representatives of different religious confessions and Jewish communities’ activists have all come together. We created the international volunteer initiative “The World Help Ukraine” and during the war we opened eight new programs of the Foundation.

1. Energy for Ukrainian Army and Civilians
2. Assistance to the Defense Forces of Ukraine
3. Institutional Humanitarian Aid
4. Evacuation of People and Food Delivery
5. Bringing Heat and Light Back to Ukraine
6. Targeted Charitable Assistance to Victims of War
7. Humanitarian Aid Delivery
8. Documentation of War Crimes

All programs of assistance to civilians are carried out in close cooperation with the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KhPG), and its director Yevhen Zakharov is the coordinator of assistance to civilians affected by the war.
The director of the Foundation, Borys Zakharov, coordinates assistance to the Defense Forces of Ukraine.
 Board
The members of the board of the Foundation are well-known human rights defenders and public figures: Josef Zissels, Ihor Kozlovskyi and Yevhen Bystrytsky.

 Josef Zissels

Born in Tashkent in 1946, Josef Samoilovich Zissels graduated from the Chernivtsi University majoring in Theoretical Physics.
From the early 1970’s, he worked with Jewish and general democratic underground movements in the USSR. In spring 1972 he was expelled from the Komsomol for speaking out in support of the right for repatriation.
In 1978 he joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. That same year, arrested and sentenced to three years in high security penal colony “for slander discrediting the Soviet government and social order”. Among the materials of accusation were Zionist documents.
In 1984, sentenced again to three years in high security penal colony. The accusation was based, among general democratic documents, on Hebrew textbooks and the “22” Israeli magazine.
In 1988 Josef Zissels set up Ukraine’s first Jewish organization in Chernivtsi. In 1989 he took part in the creation of the Vaad (Confederation of Jewish Organizations and Communities) of the USSR and became its co-chair.
Board member of the European Council of Jewish Communities, the European and World Jewish Congresses, the World Zionist Organization.
Since 1991 – Chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine (the Vaad of Ukraine), since 1999 – executive Vice President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine.
In 2002, elected as Chairman of the General Council of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress by its constituent congress in Moscow, Russia.
Participant in all the Plenary Assemblies of the World Jewish Congresses since 1991, member of the Executive Committee of the World Jewish Congress.
Awards: Prize for Freedom (HIAS) – 1991, the Order of Merit, 3rd degree, the Order For Courage, 1st degree (Ukraine)

 Ihor Kozlovsyi

Born on February 16, 1954, in Makiivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Ihor Kozlovsyi is a Ukrainian scientist and religious scholar, PhD in historical sciences, poet, prose writer, public activist.
Senior Researcher at the Department of Religious Studies, Institute of Philosophy named after G.S. Skovoroda of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
President of the Center of Religious Science Research and International Spiritual Relations, Head of the Donetsk regional department of Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies, President of the Discovery Center, vice-president of the Ukrainian Center for Islamic Studies. Member of the Expert Council on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations at the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine. Member of PEN Ukraine.

He has been working at Donetsk Regional State Administration for more than 25 years in the position of Senior Specialist and Head of Religious Affairs Department. January 27, 2016 was captured by militants of the so-called “Donetsk Peoples Republic” and was in captivity for almost 2 years (700 days) until December 27, 2017.
Prisoner of conscience. He is the author of more than 50 scientific books and 200 articles published in dictionaries, encyclopedias and scientific periodicals, as well as poetry collections and prose works.

 Eugene Bystrytskyi

Born on January 2, 1948
Doctor of Philosophy, Professor, Head of the Department (1991-2019), Leading Researcher (since 2019) of the Department of Philosophy of Culture, Ethics and Aesthetics at the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
1994-1998 – Head of the Department of Culture and Social and Humanitarian Disciplines at the Ukrainian Academy of Arts. Honorary Doctor of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University.
1993-1998 – editor of the journal Political Thought. President of the Ukrainian Philosophical Foundation (1994-1998, since 2019).
1998-2017 – Executive Director of the “Renaissance” International Foundation.
Lecturer in philosophy at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (1982-1993,2021-2022) and the National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (1993-1998). Awards: Order of Freedom (2017), Order of the Chapter of the; Ї journal. For Intellectual Courage (2018). Author of about 100 scientific papers.
Personal website: http://bystrytsky.org
 

 Director – Borys Zakharov

Education:
1997-1999 – The Historical Faculty of Kharkiv State University (History, Social and Political Sciences).
1993-1997 – History, Culture and Museum Studies Faculty of Kharkiv National Academy of Culture Other courses and scholarships:
2011-2017 – a series of special trainings on NGO management and strategic planning
2001 – Scholarship program “Free Speech Technology” (Warsaw)
1998 – Heinrich Boll Foundation Fellowship Program
1995 – Summer School of Human Rights Ukrainian Association – Amnesty International
Work Experience:
April 2020 – till now: director of Charitable Foundation “Human and Law”
April 2018 – till now: Author and TV presenter on TV program “Human and Law” at Espresso TV
1996 – till now: Head of the Board of Civil Organization “Humanitarian Studio “Khvylia”
1997 – 2020: program director in Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group
2014 – 2018:  Director of Advocacy Center of Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union
2010 – 2015: Director and co-owner of the Independent Cultural Centre «Indie». Author of the book Essay on History of The Dissident Movement in Ukraine – 1956-1987. – Kharkiv:
Folio, 2003. – 144 p., one of the authors of Biographical Dictionary of Dissidents in Central and Eastern Europe, Vol.1,2,3 Ukraine – 2005-2012, Author of several analytical reports, hundreds articles, programs and projects in the field of culture, history and human rights.