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Human rights in Ukraine concern the fundamental rights of every person in Ukraine. Between 2017 and 2022, Freedom House has given Ukraine ratings from 60 to 62 on its 100-point scale, and a "partly free" overall rating. Ratings on electoral processes have generally been good, but there are problems with corruption and due process. Its rating later declined in 2023 due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which led to the enactment of martial law in Ukraine, as well as a labor code that removed many legal protection for employees and small and medium-sized companies, as well as a law that increased the government's power to regulate media companies and journalism. Since the beginning of the invasion Russia has engaged in various war crimes against Ukrainian civilians and the invasion has had a major humanitarian impact on Ukraine and its citizens. [1]
Both the 2015 local elections and the 2019 presidential elections were generally peaceful, competitive and fair, although there are indications of misuse of state resources and vote-buying, and media pluralism has not yet been fully achieved. [2] [3] [4] Attacks on journalists, civil society activists and members of minority groups are frequent, and police responses inadequate. [5]
As of 2021 investigations into crimes against journalists and human rights activists often do not result in convictions, and impunity for torture is still widespread. [6] Gender-based and homophobic violence by groups advocating discrimination are also a cause for concern, [6] as well as linguistic rights of national minorities. [7] War crimes committed by both sides of the war in Donbas are not prosecuted, and in Russian-occupied Crimea dissent is repressed. [6]
As part of the Soviet Union, all human rights were severely limited. The Soviet Union was a one-party state until 1990 [8] and a totalitarian state from 1927 until 1953 [9] [10] [11] [12] where members of the Communist Party held all key positions in the institutions of the state and other organizations. Freedom of speech was suppressed and dissent was punished. Independent political activities were not tolerated, whether these involved participation in free labor unions, private corporations, independent churches or opposition political parties. The freedom of movement within and especially outside the country was limited.
In 1991 Ukraine declared independence. The referendum on the Act of Declaration of Independence was held in Ukraine on 1 December 1991. [13] An overwhelming majority of 92.3% of voters approved the declaration of independence made by the Verkhovna Rada on 24 August 1991. Until 8 June 1995, Ukraine's supreme law was the Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the Ukrainian SSR (adopted in 1978, with numerous later amendments). On 8 June 1995, President Leonid Kuchma and Speaker Oleksandr Moroz (acting on behalf of the parliament) signed the Constitutional Agreement for the period until a new constitution could be drafted.
The first constitution since independence was adopted during an overnight parliamentary session after almost 24 hours of debate of 27–28 June 1996, unofficially known as "the constitutional night of 1996". The Law No. 254/96-BP ratifying the constitution, nullifying previous constitutions. The Agreement was ceremonially signed and promulgated in mid-July 1996. According to a ruling of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the constitution took force at the moment when the results of the parliamentary vote were announced on 28 June 1996 at approx. 9 a.m. Kyiv Time and for the first time enshrined the obligations of human rights into law.
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Ukraine was labelled as "free" by Freedom House in 2009. [14] In their report they stated, "Ukraine has one of the most vibrant civil societies in the region. Citizens are increasingly taking issues into their own hands, protesting against unwanted construction, and exposing corruption. There were no limits seen on NGO activities. Trade unions function, but strikes and worker protests were infrequently observed, even though dissatisfaction with the state of economic affairs was pervasive in the fall of 2008. Factory owners were seen as still able to pressure their workers to vote according to the owners' preferences." [14]
On 20 October 2009 experts from the Council of Europe stated, "in the last five years the experts from the Council of Europe who monitor Ukraine have expressed practically no concerns regarding the important [process of the] formation of a civil society in Ukraine. Ukraine is one of the democratic states in Europe that is securing human rights as a national policy, as well as securing the rights of national minorities." [15] According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), "while civil society institutions operate mostly without government interference, police abuse and violations of the rights of vulnerable groups … continue to mar Ukraine's human rights record." [16]
After the early 2010 election of President Viktor Yanukovych international organizations started to voice their concern. According to Freedom House, "Ukraine under President Yanukovych has become less democratic and, if current trends are left unchecked, may head down a path toward autocracy and kleptocracy." [17] Among the recent negative developments, they mentioned, "a more restrictive environment for the media, selective prosecution of opposition figures, worrisome intrusiveness by the Security Service of Ukraine, widely criticized local elections in October 2010 … and erosion of basic freedoms of assembly and speech." This led Freedom House to downgrade Ukraine from "Free" to "Partly Free" in Freedom in the World 2011. [17] Also in 2011 Amnesty International spoke of "an increase in the number of allegations of torture and ill-treatment in police custody, restrictions on the freedom of speech and assembly, as well as mass manifestations of xenophobia". [18]
In Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index 2010 Ukraine had fallen from 89th place to 131. [19] Neighboring Russia's press freedom was ranked at position 140. [20] The International Federation for Human Rights called Ukraine "one of the countries seeing the most serious violations against human rights activists" in December 2011. [21]
As of late 2013 the situation continued to deteriorate and was one of the causes of the Euromaidan revolution, as joining or even working towards meeting the requirement to join the European Union would dramatically improve human rights across Ukraine. Russia, which had already laid the ground work reacted to the Euromaidan protests and invaded Crimea and the wider Donbas regions.
Ukraine signed but not yet ratified
As of 17 January 2013 Ukraine had lost all of its 211 cases at the European Court of Human Rights. [22]
After Bucha, Lyman, Makariv, and Kherson were liberated from Russian occupation, Ukraine discovered mass graves containing bodies of civilians. Victims frequently bore evidence of torture. [23] [24] [25] [26] [27]
International observers, including Freedom House and the United States Department of State, generally consider Ukrainian election processes to be free and fair. However, there were credible allegations of vote-buying, and media coverage was at times biased. Nazi and Communist parties are banned. [28]
Amendments to the constitution, which came into force, were detrimental to the right to receive a fair trial because they re-introduced the so-called general supervision by the prosecutor's office. Other serious problems included lengthy periods for review of cases because the courts were overloaded; infringement of equality of arms; non-observance of the presumption of innocence; the failure to execute court rulings; and high level of corruption in courts. [29] Independent lawyers and human rights activists have complained Ukrainian judges regularly come under pressure to hand down a certain verdict. [30]
According to Freedom House, the judiciary has become more efficient and less corrupt since the Orange Revolution. [14]
Recent (since 2010) trials of high-profile political figures [nb 1] Yulia Tymoshenko, Yuriy Lutsenko, Igor Didenko, [32] Anatoliy Makarenko [33] and Valeriy Ivaschenko [34] have been described by the European Commission, the United States and other international organizations as "unfair, untransparent and not independent" [35] and "selective prosecution of political opponents". [36] [37] [38]
Multiple languages have always been spoken in what is now Ukraine. [39] In the 19th century the Russians and Jews were the main ethnic groups in the urban areas while the countryside was mostly Ukrainian. [40] [41] Ukraine has a history of linguistic conflict dating back to at least the 19th century. In 1863, Russian Minister of Internal Affairs Pyotr Valuev issued a circular that banned the publication of religious texts and educational texts written in the Ukrainian language. [42]
The Soviet policy towards the Ukrainian language varied from the promotion of it under Lenin ("indigenization") to the persecution of the pro-Ukrainian language movement under Stalin, and tolerance of it which was coupled with the gradual decline of the use of the Ukrainian language and the creeping russification of Ukraine under Khrushchev and Brezhnev. [43] Following Ukraine's declaration of independence in 1991, the previous pro-Russian policies were reversed and the use of the Ukrainian language was actively encouraged and in certain areas, it was made compulsory. The 1996 Constitution stated that Ukrainian is the state language, and it also stated that the free use and development of Russian and other national minority languages is also permitted.
Subsequent legislation made the use of Ukrainian mandatory in various areas of public life. [7] [44] [45] Exceptions were made for languages that are considered "indigenous" because the speakers of them lack a kin-state, such as the Crimean Tatar language and the Karaim language, as well as those languages that are the official languages of the European Union. [46] However, significant minority languages in Ukraine, such as Russian, Belarusian and Jewish, are neither official EU languages nor indigenous, [46] and concerns have been raised about their protection. [7] [47] For example, print and online publications in languages that do not meet these criteria are prohibited unless they also have a Ukrainian translation, [7] [44] and secondary schooling in these languages is prohibited. [44] [46] [47] The differential treatment of minority languages has been criticized on human rights and discrimination grounds by the Venice Commission, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations Human Rights Office. [7] [46] [48]
Russia exaggerated the real language issues, using them to create a false justification for the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. False claims included claims that Ukraine has been committing genocide, and claims that Ukrainians have been shooting people who speak Russian. [49] [50] In areas it controlled, Russia required that all classes be in Russian [51] [52] and allegedly tortured a teacher for teaching in Ukrainian. [53]
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In 2007, in Ukraine's provinces numerous, anonymous attacks [54] and threats persisted against journalists, who investigated or exposed corruption or other government misdeeds. [55] [56] The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists concluded in 2007 that these attacks, and police reluctance in some cases to pursue the perpetrators, were "helping to foster an atmosphere of impunity against independent journalists". [16] [57]
Ukraine's ranking in Reporters Without Borders's Press Freedom Index has in the latest years been around the 90th spot (89 in 2009, [58] 87 in 2008 [59] ), while it occupied the 112th spot in 2002 [60] and even the 132nd spot in 2004. [61]
During the Russia-backed 2010-2014 Presidency of Viktor Yanukovych was elected President of Ukraine, journalistic watchdogs complained about a deterioration of press freedom in Ukraine. [62] [63] [64] [65] Anonymous journalists said early May 2010 that they were voluntarily tailoring their coverage so as not to offend the Yanukovych administration and the Yanukovych Government. [66] The Yanukovych Government said it did not censor the media, [67] so did the Presidential Administration [68] and President Yanukovych himself. [69] [70]
A May 2014 report from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said that there were approximately 300 violent attacks on the media in Ukraine since November 2013. [71] A crackdown on what authorities describe as "pro-separatist" points of view have triggered dismay among Western human rights monitors. For example, the 11 September 2014 shutdown of Vesti newspaper by the Ukrainian Security Service for "violating Ukraine's territorial integrity" brought swift condemnation from the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. [72] [nb 2]
Ukraine has also shut down several television stations operated by Russia on the grounds that they spread Russian propaganda. [72] In February 2017 the Ukrainian government banned the commercial importation of books from Russia, which had accounted for up to 60% of all titles sold. [74]
According to Amnesty International, in 2021 the media were generally pluralistic and free, but some outlets were discriminated against by officials because of their perceived pro-Russian leaning. [75] Criticisms have been levelled at the decision to deprive Taras Kozak's TV channels of broadcasting licences. [75] The investigation into the murder of the journalist Pavlo Sheremet in 2016 were undermined by serious deficiencies and lack of credibility. [75]
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Reports of torture and ill-treatment by police persisted during 2007, as did unduly long periods of pretrial custody. Of major concern were the inhumane conditions in detention with overcrowded cells, appalling sanitary conditions and the lack of appropriate medical care. During the year numerous group suicide attempts took place in some penal colonies. [29] [82]
In Eastern Ukraine, the SBU conducted torture and human rights abuses for alleged pro-Russian separatists, according to 2016 reports. [83] [84] [85] Some of this torture took place in secret prisons with unacknowledged detention. [86] The existence of black sites was denounced by multiple reports of the UN monitoring mission in Ukraine, [87] Amnesty International [88] and Human Rights Watch. [89]
On 25 May 2016, the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) suspended its visit to Ukraine after the government denied it access to places in several parts of the country where it suspects these secret jails were located. [83] [90] In 2018 Amnesty International concluded that, "The investigation into the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) for its alleged secret prisons failed to make any progress. Law enforcement officials continued to use torture and other ill-treatment." [91]
According to Amnesty International, in 2021 abuse of prisoners remained "endemic". [75] As reported by the Prosecutor General's Office, in March 2022 the European Court of Human Rights had ruled against Ukraine in 115 cases . [75] The European Court found that Oleksandr Rafalsky had spent 15 years in prison despite good reasons to believe that his "confessions" had been extorted by torture. [92]
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine numerous acts of torture of civilians and numerous acts of torture of prisoners of war by Russian forces have been documented, [93] [94] [95] [96] including rape and sexual violence against men, women, and children by Russian forces. [97] [98]
The Ukrainian government has taken a number of positive steps to fight HIV/AIDS, chiefly in the area of legislative and policy reform. But these important commitments are being undermined in the criminal justice and health systems by widespread human rights abuses against drug users, sex workers, and people living with HIV/AIDS. [16]
There has been a growing awareness of human trafficking as a human rights issue in Europe. The end of communism has contributed to an increase in human trafficking, with the majority of victims being women forced into prostitution. [99] [100] In 2013 Ukraine was a country of origin and country of transit for persons, primarily women and children, trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation and forced labor. [101] Charcoal production and pornography have been listed in the U.S. Department of Labor's List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor under the country of Ukraine in December 2014. The Government of Ukraine has shown some commitment to combatting trafficking but has been criticized for not fully complying with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, and for inadequate trafficking prevention efforts. [102]
Violence against women is an entrenched social problem in Ukrainian culture engendered by traditional male and female stereotypes. [103] [104] It was not recognized during the Soviet era, but in recent decades the issue became an important topic of discussion in Ukrainian society and among academic scholars. According to the estimation of OSCE the violence towards women is widespread in Ukraine and it is associated with three times more deaths than the ongoing armed conflict in the eastern provinces of the country. [105]
During the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, Ukraine has lost control of Crimea and parts of the Donbas. On 21 May 2015, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has passed a resolution declaring that it has withdrawn from some of the obligations stipulated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (articles 2, 9, 12, 14, 17), the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (articles 5, 6, 8, 13) and European Social Charter (articles 1 p. 2, 4 p. 2-3, 8 p. 1, 14 p. 1, 15,16,17 p. 1a p. 1c, 23,30, 31 p. 1-2) at the Donbas region until "Russia cease its aggression in eastern Ukraine". [106] [107]
Leonid Danylovych Kuchma is a Ukrainian politician who was the second president of Ukraine from 19 July 1994 to 23 January 2005. The only President of Ukraine to serve two terms, his presidency was marked by democratic backsliding and the growth of the Ukrainian oligarchs, as well as several scandals and improvement of Russia–Ukraine relations.
Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych is a former Ukrainian politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 to 2014. He also served as the prime minister of Ukraine several times between 2002 and 2007 and was a member of the Verkhovna Rada from 2006 to 2010. A member of the pro-Russian Party of Regions, Yanukovych provoked mass protests — the Euromaidan — against his rejection of closer integration with the European Union and was removed from the presidency by the Ukrainian parliament in 2014, at the time neighboring Russia started to annex Ukrainian Crimea and started the Russo-Ukrainian War. Since then, he has lived in exile in Russia.
The Security Service of Ukraine is the main internal security agency of the Ukrainian government. Its main duties include counter-intelligence activity and combating organized crime and terrorism. The Constitution of Ukraine defines the SBU as a military formation, and its staff are considered military personnel with ranks. It is subordinated directly under the authority of the president of Ukraine. The SBU also operates its own special forces unit, the Alpha Group.
The Donbas or Donbass is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine. The majority of the Donbas is occupied by Russia as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Russia has consistently been criticized by international organizations and independent domestic media outlets for human rights violations. Some of the most commonly cited violations include deaths in custody, the systemic and widespread use of torture by security forces and prison guards, the existence of hazing rituals within the Russian Army—referred to as dedovshchina —as well as prevalent breaches of children's rights, instances of violence and prejudice against ethnic minorities, and the targeted killings of journalists.
The Kyiv Post is the oldest English-language newspaper in Ukraine, founded in October 1995 by Jed Sunden. In November 2021, following an editorial disagreement, the Kyiv Post fired all of its reporters, many of whom founded and joined the Kyiv Independent. On November 11, Luc Chénier returned to Kyiv Post as its CEO to rebuild with his first hire being Bohdan Nahaylo as its Chief Editor. Within 2 months of taking over, Kyiv Post had doubled its readership with a clear emphasis on being Ukraine’s Global Voice and by focusing on the USA, Canadian, UK, and European Union Markets. By year 3, Kyiv Post now has a 97% readership outside of Ukraine with an combines websites and social media viewership of more than 6 million viewers per month. In October 2023, Kyiv Post was the first news organisations in Ukraine to be rated a perfect 100% content transparency and accuracy rating for journalism strandards according to global rating platform News Guard.
Eastern Ukraine or east Ukraine is primarily the territory of Ukraine east of the Dnipro river, particularly Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts (provinces). Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts are often also regarded as "eastern Ukraine".
Women in Ukraine have equal constitutional rights as men in the economic, political, cultural, and social fields, as well as in the family.
Ukraine was in 96th place out of 180 countries listed in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index, having returned to top 100 of this list for the first time since 2009, but dropped down one spot to 97th place in 2021, being characterized as being in a "difficult situation".
Mykola Yanovych Azarov is a Ukrainian politician who was the Prime Minister of Ukraine from 11 March 2010 to 27 January 2014. He was the First Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister from 2002 to 2005 and again from 2006 to 2007. Azarov also served ex officio as an acting prime minister in the First Yanukovych Government when Viktor Yanukovych ran for president at first and then upon the resignation of his government.
Femen is a Ukrainian radical feminist activist group whose goal is to protect women's rights. The organization became internationally known for organizing controversial topless protests against sex tourism, religious institutions, sexism, homophobia, and other social, national, and international topics. Founded in Ukraine, the group is now based in France. Femen describes its ideology as being "sextremism, atheism and feminism".
The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia occupied and annexed Crimea from Ukraine and supported pro-Russian separatists fighting the Ukrainian military in the Donbas War. These first eight years of conflict also included naval incidents and cyberwarfare. In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and began occupying more of the country, starting the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II. The war has resulted in a refugee crisis and tens of thousands of deaths.
The war in Donbas, also known as the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the Donbas region of Ukraine. The war began in April 2014, when a commando unit headed by Russian citizen Igor Girkin seized Sloviansk in Donetsk oblast. The Ukrainian military launched an operation against them. The war continued until subsumed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Luhansk People's Republic is a republic of Russia in the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast, with its capital in Luhansk. The LPR was proclaimed by Russian-backed paramilitaries in 2014, and it initially operated as a breakaway state until it was annexed by Russia in 2022. The entire territory of LPR is viewed as sovereign territory of Ukraine by nearly all UN member states.
During the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War between the Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region of Ukraine that began in April 2014, many international organisations and states noted a deteriorating humanitarian situation in the conflict zone.
The Sparta Battalion or 80th Separate Guards Reconnaissance Battalion "Sparta" named after A. S. Pavlov is a special purpose unit of the Russian Armed Forces. Until 2023, unit was part of Russian people's militia military unit of the Russian republic of Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine. The unit has been fighting against the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donbas war and the 2022 Russian invasion. Formed in 2014, it was initially led by the Russian-born Arsen Pavlov until his death in October 2016, and then by Vladimir Zhoga, from Sloviansk, until his death in March 2022.
Stanislav Aseyev is a Ukrainian writer and journalist, human rights activist, and founder of the Justice Initiative Fund. Serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. His best-known work is the novel The Torture Camp on Paradise Street (2020). In May 2014 his native city of Donetsk fell under the control of Russian militants and he remained there. From 2015 through 2017 Aseyev published his reports for the Mirror Weekly newspaper and other Ukrainian media. On 2 June 2017, he disappeared. On 16 July, an agent of the Ministry of State Security of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) confirmed that he was kidnapped by militants from the DPR.
Secret prisons of the SBU were secret detention facilities operated by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in Eastern Ukraine to incarcerate suspected Russian-backed separatists during the war in Donbas.
Russian war crimes are violations of international criminal law including war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide which the official armed and paramilitary forces of Russia have committed or been accused of committing since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, as well as the aiding and abetting of crimes by proto-statelets or puppet statelets which are armed and financed by Russia, including the Luhansk People's Republic and the Donetsk People's Republic. These have included murder, torture, terror, persecution, deportation and forced transfer, enforced disappearance, child abductions, rape, looting, unlawful confinement, inhumane acts, unlawful airstrikes and attacks against civilian objects, use of banned chemical weapons, and wanton destruction.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Russian military and authorities have committed war crimes, such as deliberate attacks against civilian targets, including on hospitals, medical facilities and on the energy grid; indiscriminate attacks on densely-populated areas; the abduction, torture and murder of civilians; forced deportations; sexual violence; destruction of cultural heritage; and the killing and torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
"after 1953 ...This was still an oppressive regime, but not a totalitarian one."
"The era of 'social engineering' in the Soviet Union ended with the death of Stalin in 1953 or soon after; and that was the close of the totalitarian regime itself."
"The Soviet Union after the death of Stalin moved from totalitarianism to authoritarian rule."
a persistent pattern of arbitrary and incommunicado detention by the Ukrainian law enforcement (mainly by the Security Service of Ukraine) and by military and paramilitary units (first and foremost by the former volunteer battalions now formally incorporated into the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard and the police). These cases were often accompanied by torture and ill-treatment