shirking their military duty to serve back where they came from. In Rivne, the city council decided to no longer host IDP men of military conscription age. (Women make up two-thirds of all adult IDPs). On the other hand, regional authorities, as for example in Volyn, started checking male IDPs when they arrived in the west for fear that they might be ‘separatists’ posing as IDPs, and the local population was encouraged to report any suspicious person or object. VI. FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, ASSOCIATION, PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY, MOVEMENT, RELIGION OR BELIEF A. Peaceful assembly 140. Ukrainians with the exception of those living in the east were generally able to fully exercise their freedom to peaceful assembly in a variety of ways: by gathering in ‘flash mobs’, pickets, rallies, demonstrations and other groups to articulate publicly their concerns. Peaceful demonstrations must be permitted, as a matter of international human rights law, and also as a way for people to exercise their rights to the freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly which are the foundation for a free and democratic society. Mostly these gatherings were held without incident and without hindrance, although almost always with a large police presence. 141. In Odesa, the HRMMU noticed that since June, most of the assemblies were prohibited by court decisions. Generally the court referred to an alleged danger to public order which, in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, was among the grounds justifying interference with the right to peaceful assembly. In addition the court referred to the 2 May violence, and recent arrests of people allegedly planning terrorist acts, as grounds for the potential threat to public order. 142. No violence on the scale which occurred with the Maidan protests or in Odesa on 2 May has occurred at peaceful assemblies held during the reporting period. However, those seminal events continue to be a guiding concern for the authorities when approving demonstrations: they appeared to prefer to ban one rather than be blamed for any violence it triggered. In some places, public mass rallies were banned altogether, for example, in Odesa on 22 June, although two peaceful rallies went ahead anyway. In other places it was because the authorities thought the subject matter might incite violence. In Kyiv, for example, this justification appeared to be behind the eventual cancellation of an LGBT rights parade, to be held on 5 July, when police said they could not guarantee the safety of participants. It is the job of law enforcement officers to facilitate peaceful assemblies and to ensure the protection of the participants, irrespective of their political or other views. In order to be able to do this, law enforcement must receive adequate training to be able to handle rallies and protests, in line with international human rights standards. 143. Overall, law enforcement has managed to contain violent intent, although there have been incidents of serious damage to property and some injuries. There have also been more isolated scuffles and clashes that generally have been kept to a minimum by law enforcement. Police have been criticized for sometimes not doing enough to stop violent actions (as for example, when the trade unions meeting was violently disrupted in Kyiv on 26 June) and, conversely, for cracking down unnecessarily hard on demonstrators to prevent any kind of possible public disorder from the very beginning. This was the concern in Kharkiv on 22 June, when a large presence of law enforcement officers successfully kept opposing groups apart but was later criticized by one side for abuse of 159 | P a g e