Principles of the Citizen's Encyclopedia

This is a verified article. If you notice any unconfirmed information or misleading statements, let's discuss them

This is an article about the fundamental principles of the project

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The Citizen's Encyclopedia is a Ukrainian project created to help activists of all kinds defend their rights and to systematize information about methods of public influence on government decisions in Ukraine. The Principles of the Encyclopedia are a list of key rules for the project's existence.

Principles of the Encyclopedia

1. The Encyclopedia collects information about civil protests, initiatives, and conflicts in Ukraine and around the world, carefully verifies it, and publishes only those facts that are confirmed. Confirmation, or proof, includes photos, videos, or documents. The exception to the rule of confirmation is interviews, and partially—personal dossiers of activists.

2. The number one task of the Encyclopedia is the institutionalization of activists' experiences in the form of a reliable online reference guide and the preservation of the history of actions by both activists and their opponents.

3. The second task of Encyclopedia is to create easy-to-use manuals for activists. These guides will help people understand the legal, political, and communication tools they can use to protect their rights more effectively.

4. Articles are Based on Evidence. Articles are built on verified facts and do not include subjective opinions or judgments. If you notice unverified information, misleading statements, or evaluative remarks in an article, let’s discuss it, tell us about that.

5. Public Dialogue as a Key Mechanism. Public dialogue - is the main tool for ensuring the reliability of the Encyclopedia and building an activist community. Everyone can point out errors or suggest changes in an open Facebook group, expecting a public and well-reasoned discussion, provided the rules of dialogue are respected. The outcomes of these discussions—agreement, rejection, or compromise—are documented in the change logs. These records make it possible to track when and why a published article was (or was not) modified and to understand how the discussion unfolded.

6. Case Processing Priorities. The order of case material processing is determined by the editor-in-chief and primarily depends on whether the case involves civic protests, initiatives, or public resonance. Other criteria for prioritization include:

• The relevance of the case,
• Availability of all necessary information,
• Presence of threats to the life, health, or freedom of activists,
• The movement's messaging, including both negative ("we are against") and positive ("we are for") positions, etc.

7. The six principles outlined above form the foundation of the Encyclopedia and are the cornerstone of its existence.

What the Articles Cover

1. Articles explore the following topics:

• Cases: protests, initiatives, social movements, scandals,
• Government and Business: responsibilities and activities of councils, organizations, enterprises, or institutions, their declared goals, and the decisions they actually make,
• People: their actions and public statements.

2. Articles include three types of links. navy links lead to other Encyclopedia articles, green direct readers to verified evidence, blue lead to external resources, primarily registries such as the Clarity Project analytical platform. Links to the open discussion group appear like this.

Different Types of References

A reference can be complete like the entries on Sadyba Murashka, Kyiv City Council, or чи Cats' Protest. Complete references include ALL verified information about the events in a case that we've managed to find from activists, registers, and open sources, usually with a date of the last update.

Most of the references are gradually updated. These are references we're currently working on, but we can already share some verified information. For example, all references on Kyiv City Council Deputies are not a comprehensive description of the person's entire activity but reflect their position in specific cases as we have managed to investigate.

Principles of Creating Personal Dossiers

t this stage of the Encyclopedia's development, personal dossiers are created for politicians, officials, and individuals who have participated as activists in protests or civil initiatives.

Dossier of a Politician or Official is not a comprehensive description of the individual's entire activity. Such dossiers gradually explore the professional activity, i.e., the decisions and actions of a person in their official role, and provide basic information such as contact details, profiles of individuals with the same name in the Unified State Register (EDR), or the latest declaration. Personal life or the activities of family members are not covered in these dossiers, except when familial affiliation influences or may influence professional activities or is a significant part of anti-corruption investigations.
The dossier is filled incrementally, meaning that if an individual is both a KCGA official and a Kyiv City Council deputy, only one aspect of their professional activity may be reflected, while other aspects are still under investigation. These dossiers are updated and verified with each new update.

Dossier of Russians and Collaborators are developed exclusively in the context of the Russo-Ukrainian war and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. They contain only information related to activities connected with Russian aggression and are filled without following the incremental principle (dossiers on Russians and collaborators are opened one by one, not by categories).

Funding

The Encyclopedia has no external funding and has been created since 2019 by the members of the NGO "Culture Against Vulgarity" and their supporters. Until June 2022, we didn’t even have a bank account.
The only instance of external funding occurred on September 28, 2022, when the founder and editor-in-chief of the site, Yuliia Nikitina, received a 3-month personal scholarship from the Office of Action. None of our grant applications received support, so we stopped pursuing them.

We receive donations. The recipient of the donations is the NGO "Culture Against Vulgarity" The contributions are not payments for publishing material and do not grant the donor any rights, except for the right to ensure that the funds are used for their intended purpose.