United Nations A/HRC/37/16 General Assembly Distr.: General 3 January 2018 Original: English Human Rights Council Thirty-seventh session 26 February–23 March 2018 Agenda item 6 Universal periodic review Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review* Ukraine * The annex is being issued without formal editing, in the language of submission only. GE.17-23488(E) A/HRC/37/16 Introduction 1. The Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, established in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 5/1, held its twenty-eighth session from 6 to 17 November 2017. The review of Ukraine was held at the 15th meeting, on 15 November 2017. The delegation of Ukraine was headed by the Deputy Minister of Justice for European Integration, Sergiy Petukhov. At its 18th meeting, held on 17 November 2017, the Working Group adopted the report on Ukraine. 2. On 13 February 2017, the Human Rights Council selected the following group of rapporteurs (troika) to facilitate the review of Ukraine: Georgia, Netherlands and Rwanda. 3. In accordance with paragraph 15 of the annex to Human Rights Council resolution 5/1 and paragraph 5 of the annex to Council resolution 16/21, the following documents were issued for the review of Ukraine: (a) A national report submitted/written presentation made in accordance with paragraph 15 (a) (A/HRC/WG.6/28/UKR/1 and Corr. 1); (b) A compilation prepared by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in accordance with paragraph 15 (b) (A/HRC/WG.6/28/UKR/2); (c) A summary prepared by OHCHR in accordance with paragraph 15 (c) (A/HRC/WG.6/28/UKR/3). 4. A list of questions prepared in advance by Belgium, Brazil, Czechia, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America was transmitted to Ukraine through the troika. These questions are available on the extranet of the universal periodic review. I. Summary of the proceedings of the review process A. Presentation by the State under review 5. The delegation of Ukraine began by expressing its full support for the universal periodic review process. 6. Ukraine had adopted its first national human rights strategy in 2015, and a related action plan, for the period 2015–2020, following consultation with representatives of civil society. 7. Referring to General Assembly resolutions 68/262 on the territorial integrity of Ukraine and 71/205 on the situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine), the delegation highlighted that the main human rights challenge at the moment was the illegal annexation of Crimea and the occupation of parts of Donbas. It expressed the commitment of Ukraine to ensuring that United Nations and other international human rights mechanisms had a permanent presence in Crimea to fully monitor the human rights situation there. Ukraine would continue using all of the measures available to ensure that the Russian Federation complied with the temporary measures ordered by the International Court of Justice, in particular towards reinstating the Mejlis, a representative body of the indigenous Crimean Tatars, and ensuring the availability of education in Ukrainian. 8. The situation in Donbas remained fragile, and the conflict had already claimed more than 10,000 lives. Ukraine remained committed to the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and implementation package. The deployment of a full-fledged United Nations peacekeeping mission in the occupied territory of Donbas would be a real breakthrough in the process of peaceful settlement. The parliament was currently discussing a draft law on reintegration of the occupied parts of Donbas. 2 A/HRC/37/16 9. The current situation had led to the internal displacement of more than 1.5 million persons in the country, 88 per cent of whom had integrated into the receiving communities. The biggest obstacles to integration were the absence of housing, the absence of regular income and/or the lack of employment. The delegation stressed the efforts made by Ukraine to improve the allocation of social benefits to internally displaced persons, underlining that there was currently no mechanism available to provide such benefits in territories outside the control of the Government. 10. The issue of gender-based violence was being addressed through awareness-raising and information campaigns, the provision of assistance to the victims and the prosecution of offenders. Since October 2016, 26 mobile teams had provided social and psychological assistance to victims. The delegation underlined the findings of the human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine on widespread conflict-related sexual violence against civilians in areas controlled by armed groups in Donbas. Work towards the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention) was ongoing. 11. In 2016, the Constitution had been amended to strengthen the independence of the judiciary, in particular through the elimination of political influence in the process of establishing courts and appointing judges. Twenty-seven regional free legal aid centres providing assistance in criminal cases, and 528 local centres providing secondary legal aid in administrative and civil cases, had been established in 2013 and 2015, respectively. Since 2015, the list of people entitled to free legal aid had been expanded to include internally displaced persons, victims of domestic violence, veterans and asylum seekers. 12. Article 124 of the Constitution had been amended to allow for the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court within three years. Revision of domestic criminal law with a view to its harmonization with the Statute was under way. In April 2014, following declarations made by the parliament under article 12 (3) of the Statute, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court had opened a preliminary investigation into the situation in Ukraine. 13. With regard to corruption, the delegation reaffirmed the commitment of Ukraine to establishing an anti-corruption court as a separate independent body. 14. Regarding the requirement for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to release financial declarations, the Government was working on establishing a system that would not endanger their activities and independence. 15. The penitentiary system in the Ukraine had been demilitarized. As a consequence of reforms the prison population had significantly decreased, which had led to the improvement of conditions in detention facilities. However, overcrowding and poor conditions of detention remained a problem in pretrial detention facilities. Articles 212 and 213 of the Criminal Procedure Code provided for due process safeguards for detainees, and an information technology system for custody records was currently being tested. 16. Ukraine remained committed to preventing torture and ill-treatment and prosecuting the perpetrators. In 2012, a national preventive mechanism had been established as part of the office of the ombudsperson. Furthermore, an independent State bureau of investigations had recently been set up to investigate crimes committed by high-ranking officials, judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officers. The Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment had conducted two visits to the country in 2016, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment had conducted four visits since 2012, and the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment would undertake a visit soon. 17. In 2014, anti-discrimination legislation in Ukraine had been updated to cover direct and indirect discrimination and aiding and abetting discrimination, to grant more powers to the ombudsperson in that area, to prohibit discrimination by private persons and companies and to introduce a mandatory anti-discrimination review of draft laws. In 2015, a national focal point for hate crimes had been established within the national police, and the 3 A/HRC/37/16 Government had continued to promote awareness-raising campaigns and encourage the reporting of hate crimes. 18. Draft law No. 1729 prohibiting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender “propaganda” had been withdrawn from the parliament, and the Labour Code had been amended in 2015 to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment and occupation. In 2016, the Ministry of Health had abolished Order No. 60, which had required extensive psychiatric observation of transgender people before they underwent gender reassignment surgery. In 2016 and 2017, the Equality March had taken place peacefully in Kyiv under the protection of the national police. 19. The delegation stressed that Ukraine would continue to engage in inclusive dialogue with society to ensure that no group, including Roma, was marginalized or discriminated against. The national strategy on Roma integration had been implemented, extra efforts had been made to improve the documentation of the Roma population, and school attendance of Roma children had increased significantly. 20. Recent developments in gender equality included the approval of the national action plan to implement Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security; the establishment of a commissioner