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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 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 it's 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]
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.
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (November 2022)
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 PresidentViktor 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]
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.
International and European human rights treaties
Ukraine is a party to the following international treaties
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]
Electoral rights
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]
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 nineteenth 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.[44][45][46] 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.[47] However, significant minority languages in Ukraine, such as Russian, Belarusian and Jewish, are neither official EU languages nor indigenous,[47] and concerns have been raised about their protection.[44][48] For example, print and online publications in languages that do not meet these criteria are prohibited unless they also have a Ukrainian translation,[44][45] and secondary schooling in these languages is prohibited.[45][47][48] 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.[44][47][49]
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.[50][51] In areas it controlled, Russia required that all classes be in Russian[52][53] and allegedly tortured a teacher for teaching in Ukrainian.[54]
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (November 2022)
In 2007, in Ukraine's provinces numerous, anonymous attacks[55] and threats persisted against journalists, who investigated or exposed corruption or other government misdeeds.[56][57] 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][58]
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.[63][64][65][66] 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.[67] The Yanukovych Government said it did not censor the media,[68] so did the Presidential Administration[69] and President Yanukovych himself.[70][71]
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.[72] 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 [Wikidata] 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.[73][nb 2]
Ukraine has also shut down several television stations operated by Russia on the grounds that they purvey propaganda.[73] 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.[75]
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.[76] Criticisms have been levelled at the decision to deprive Taras Kozak's TV channels of broadcasting licences.[76] The investigation into the murder of the journalist Pavlo Sheremet in 2016 were undermined by serious deficiencies and lack of credibility.[76]
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][83]
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.[84][91] 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".[92]
According to Amnesty International, in 2021 abuse of prisoners remained "endemic".[76] As reported by the Prosecutor General's Office, in March 2022 the European Court of Human Rights had ruled against Ukraine in 115 cases .[76] 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.[93]
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,[94][95][96][97] including rape and sexual violence against men, women, and children by Russian forces.[98][99]
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]
Migrants and refugees
The Ukrainian asylum system barely functions due to a highly decentralized structure spanning several government agencies and departments. The process of creating a single migration system has been slow; political interference in the system is common and abuses of migrants and asylum seekers' rights continue.[citation needed]
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.[100][101] 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.[102] 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.[103]
Violence against women is an entrenched social problem in Ukrainian culture engendered by traditional male and female stereotypes.[104][105] 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.[106]
^Cases were opened against:
1) Prime Minister – Tymoshenko.
2) Minister of Police – Lutsenko.
3) Minister of Defence – Ivashchenko.
4) Minister of Finance – Danylyshyn.
5) Minister of Natural Resources – Filipchuk.
6) Deputy Minister of Justice – Korneichuk.
7) Head of Customs of Ukraine – Makarenko.
8) Head of the regional customs – Shepitko.
9–10) Head of the State Treasury of Ukraine – Slyuz; Deputy head – Gritsoun.
11) Deputy head of "Naftogaz" (state monopoly on trade in gas and oil) – Didenko.
12) Governor of Dnipropetrovsk region (former Minister of Transport) – Bondar.
Repeatedly called in for questioning in order to open a criminal case : minister and former mayor of Lviv – Kuybida; First Deputy Prime Minister – Turchynov.[31]
^Former Vesti News's editor-in-chief Igor Guzhva wrote on his Facebook page that the news outlet had been raided by Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The SBU reportedly took all servers, kept staffers in a "hot corridor" and shut down the website completely. Guzhva said that the purpose of the raid was "to block our work." "Journalists are not being let into their office", Guzhva wrote. "Those who were already inside at the moment of the raid are being kept in the building and are not allowed to use cell phones." Guzhva said that this is the second time in just six months that the SBU has tried to "intimidate" its editors. He added that he is unsure of the reason for the raid, but suspects that it might have to do with a story the website recently published on the SBU chief's daughter.[74]
^Rutland, Peter (1993). The Politics of Economic Stagnation in the Soviet Union: The Role of Local Party Organs in Economic Management. Cambridge University Press. p. 9. ISBN978-0-521-39241-9. "after 1953 ...This was still an oppressive regime, but not a totalitarian one."
^Krupnik, Igor (1995). "4. Soviet Cultural and Ethnic Policies Towards Jews: A Legacy Reassessed". In Ro'i, Yaacov (ed.). Jews and Jewish Life in Russia and the Soviet Union. Routledge. ISBN978-0-714-64619-0. "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."
^von Beyme, Klaus (2014). On Political Culture, Cultural Policy, Art and Politics. Springer. p. 65. ISBN978-3-319-01559-0. "The Soviet Union after the death of Stalin moved from totalitarianism to authoritarian rule."
^Magocsi, Paul R. (2010). A history of Ukraine : the land and its peoples. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 7. ISBN978-1-4426-4085-6. OCLC463766328.
^The settlement of New Russia is discussed in Kappeler, Andreas (2014). "The Late Tsarist Multiethnic Empire between Modernization and Tradition". The Russian Empire: A Multi-ethnic History. Routledge. ISBN9781317568094.
^Dnieper Ukraine is discussed by Magocsi, Paul Robert (2010). A History of Ukraine: The Land and Its Peoples, Second Edition. University of Toronto Press. p. 353. ISBN9781442698796.
^Miller, Alexei (203). The Ukrainian Question. The Russian Empire and Nationalism in the Nineteenth Century. Budapest-New York: Central European University Press. ISBN963-9241-60-1.
^Grenoble, Lenore A. (2003). Language Policy in the Soviet Union. Language Policy. Vol. 3. New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow: Kluwer Academic Publishers. doi:10.1007/0-306-48083-2. ISBN0-306-48083-2. S2CID127542313.
^"Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine". OHCHR. 15 August 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2022. 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
^Lucas, Brian (2017). "Gender and conflict in Ukraine"(PDF). gsdrc.org. K4D Knowledge, Evidence and Learning for Development. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
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