The Coalition against Discrimination in Ukraine asserts that anti-discrimination legislation in Ukraine is not being formulated to protect human rights, but merely for the purpose of visa liberalization with the European Union. The latest draft law from the Justice Ministry,which the public were not included in the discussion of, again fails to contain adequate effective mechanisms for defending victims.

In order to change the situation, on the day of the EU-Ukraine Summit, civic activists organized a performance outside the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and Inter-Ethnic Relations.   

During the action, the participants, taking the role of people who have suffered various forms of discrimination (on the grounds of age, gender, religion, state of health, etc) approach a judge asking for protection. The judge can find no mechanisms of defence in the law, since the legislators “forgot” to put it in.

The action demonstrated how defenceless Ukrainians are and pointed to the lack of possibility of defending themselves using legal avenues.

After the performance, members of the Coalition against Discrimination in Ukraine handed MPs proposals on improving the draft law and suggested creating a working group with the involvement of experts from civic society in order to work further on it.

According to the Coordinator of the Coalition, Iryna Fedorovych, the Coalition is ready to provide its experts, proposals and other assistance both with working on improving this draft law and on drawing up others on preventing and countering discrimination in Ukraine.

Reference

The Coalition against Discrimination in Ukraine is made up of civic organizations and independent experts who are working in solidarity to defend the interests of groups in Ukraine facing discrimination in order to achieve real equality.

The Coalition against Discrimination in Ukraine was founded on 5 April 2011 as a national nongovernmental civic human rights initiative through the signing by Ukrainian NGOs of a special referendum. On 15 February 2012 the decision was taken to transform the Coalition into a union of NGOs and individual experts united by human rights values and who are taking part in efforts to overcome discrimination in Ukraine.