Ecri Report on Ukraine

CRI(2017)38 ECRI REPORT ON UKRAINE (fifth monitoring cycle) Adopted on 20 June 2017 Published on 19 September 2017 ECRI Secretariat Directorate General II - Democracy Council of Europe F-67075 STRASBOURG Cedex Tel.: + 33 (0) 3 90 21 46 62 E-mail: [email protected] www.coe.int/ecri ECRI REPORT ON UKRAINE (fifth monitoring cycle) Adopted on 20 June 2017 Published on 19 September 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD ................................................................................................................ 7 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................... 9 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................... 11 I. COMMON TOPICS ......................................................................................... 11 1. EXISTENCE OF LEGISLATION AGAINST RACISM AND RACIAL DISCRIMINATION .. 11 - CRIMINAL LAW ........................................................................................... 11 - CIVIL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW ................................................................. 12 - NATIONAL SPECIALISED BODIES .................................................................. 13 2. HATE SPEECH ........................................................................................... 14 - DATA ........................................................................................................ 14 - HATE SPEECH IN POLITICAL AND OTHER PUBLIC DISCOURSE ......................... 15 - EXTREMIST GROUPS .................................................................................. 16 - HATE SPEECH IN THE MEDIA AND ON INTERNET ............................................ 16 - THE AUTHORITIES’ RESPONSE .................................................................... 16 3. RACIST AND HOMO/TRANSPHOBIC VIOLENCE ............................................... 18 4. INTEGRATION POLICIES .............................................................................. 20 - HISTORICAL ETHNIC, RELIGIOUS AND LINGUISTIC MINORITIES ........................ 21 - NON-NATIONALS ........................................................................................ 25 II. TOPICS SPECIFIC TO UKRAINE .................................................................. 27 1. INTERIM FOLLOW-UP RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE FOURTH CYCLE ................ 27 2. INTEGRATION OF INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS (IDPS) .......................... 29 3. POLICIES TO COMBAT DISCRIMINATION AND INTOLERANCE VIS-A-VIS LGBT ... 30 - DATA ........................................................................................................ 30 - LEGISLATIVE ISSUES .................................................................................. 31 - PROMOTING TOLERANCE AND COMBATING DISCRIMINATION.......................... 32 INTERIM FOLLOW-UP RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................................... 35 LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................ 37 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................ 39 5 FOREWORD The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), established by the Council of Europe, is an independent human rights monitoring body specialised in questions relating to racism and intolerance. It is composed of independent and impartial members appointed on the basis of their moral authority and recognised expertise in dealing with racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance. In the framework of its statutory activities, ECRI conducts country monitoring work, which analyses the situation in each of the member States of the Council of Europe regarding racism and intolerance and draws up suggestions and proposals for dealing with the problems identified. ECRI’s country monitoring deals with all member States on an equal footing. The work takes place in 5-year cycles, covering 9-10 countries per year. The reports of the first round were completed at the end of 1998, those of the second round at the end of 2002, those of the third round at the end of 2007, and those of the fourth round in the beginning of 2014. Work on the fifth round reports started in November 2012. The working methods for the preparation of the reports involve documentary analyses, a visit to the country concerned, and then a confidential dialogue with the national authorities. ECRI’s reports are not the result of inquiries or testimonial evidence. They are analyses based on a great deal of information gathered from a wide variety of sources. Documentary studies are based on a large number of national and international written sources. The in situ visit provides the opportunity to meet with the parties directly concerned (both governmental and non-governmental) with a view to gathering detailed information. The process of confidential dialogue with the national authorities allows the latter to provide, if they consider it necessary, comments on the draft report, with a view to correcting any possible factual errors which the report might contain. At the end of the dialogue, the national authorities may request, if they so wish, that their viewpoints be appended to the final ECRI report. The fifth round country-by-country reports focus on four topics common to all member States: (1) Legislative issues, (2) Hate speech, (3) Violence, (4) Integration policies and a number of topics specific to each one of them. The fourth-cycle interim recommendations not implemented or partially implemented during the fourth monitoring cycle will be followed up in this connection. In the framework of the fifth cycle, priority implementation is requested again for two specific recommendations chosen from those made in the report. A process of interim follow-up for these two recommendations will be conducted by ECRI no later than two years following the publication of this report. The following report was drawn up by ECRI under its own responsibility. It covers the situation up to 23 March 2017; developments since that date are neither covered in the following analysis nor taken into account in the conclusions and proposals therein. 7 SUMMARY Since the adoption of ECRI’s fourth report on Ukraine on 9 December 2011, progress has been made in a number of fields. The Law on Prevention and Combating Discrimination was enacted in 2012 and is largely in line with ECRI’s General Policy Recommendation No. 7. Provisions prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace were introduced into the Labour Code in 2015. Powers to prevent and combat discrimination have been granted to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights. A Contact Point on Hate Crime has been appointed in the National Police in Kyiv and special police officers at the regional level to follow up on hate crime incidents. The police crime report form now includes a checkbox to reflect the victim’s perception of hate as a motive. Posters have been produced to encourage reporting of hate crime. The National Human Rights Strategy was approved in 2015; equality and non- discrimination feature among its six principles. The Strategy for the Protection and Integration of the Roma Ethnic Minority in Ukraine up to 2020 was adopted in 2013, along with a plan of action. Steps have been taken in employment to inform Roma about job openings, vocational training and starting a business. Plots of land have been allocated to Roma for farming, gardening and construction of housing. There is a high degree of solidarity towards internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Ukrainian society and most were welcomed with understanding and support. A Comprehensive National Programme for the Support, Social Adaptation and Reintegration of IDPs was adopted in 2015. ECRI welcomes these positive developments in Ukraine. However, despite the progress achieved, some issues give rise to concern. There is no punishment in the Criminal Code of incitement to hatred motivated by homo/transphobia and the Law on Prevention and Combating Discrimination does not mention the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity. The specific provisions on racially-motivated hate crime (hate speech and hate-motivated violence) are rarely applied and with a low conviction rate. Roma are the most frequent targets of racist violence. In 2014 and 2015 there was an increase in serious violence against LGBT persons, in some cases with the use of weapons and explosives. Racist violence committed by police continues to be reported as well as failure by police to intervene to stop racist or homophobic attacks. The Strategy for the Protection and Integration of the Roma Ethnic Minority in Ukraine up to 2020 has no budget and remains largely unimplemented. Lack of personal identity documents continues to be a problem for many Roma. Roma children experience numerous problems in education, including segregation, lack of access to preschool, high dropout rates and bullying. Refugees face severe challenges in everyday life and obstacles to local integration. They do not receive social welfare benefits and have no access to social housing or Ukrainian language courses. IDPs encounter difficulties with residence registration, which hampers access to rights, as well as housing and employment. 9 In this report, ECRI requests that the authorities take action in a number of areas; in this context, it makes a series of recommendations, including the following.1 Sexual

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