
Members of Working Group No. 1″ Democracy, Human Rights, good governance and stability “of the Ukrainian national platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (UNP EaP CSF) and Working Group No. 2 “Freedom, justice, human rights” of the Ukrainian side of the EU-Ukraine Civil Society Platform (US CSP) on October 11, 2021 appealed to the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to support the draft law of Ukraine “On amendments to the code of administrative offences of Ukraine and the Criminal Code of Ukraine concerning combating discrimination” (register. No. 5488 dated 13.05.2021), which is included in the agenda of the sixth session of the parliament and on the urgent ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of violence against women and domestic violence (hereinafter – the Istanbul Convention) and the introduction into the legislation of Ukraine of international standards for preventing and countering violence against women and domestic and gender-based violence.
We, members of Working Group No. 1 “Democracy, Human Rights, good governance and stability” of the Ukrainian national platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (UNP EaP CSF) and Working Group No. 2 “Freedom, justice, human rights” of the Ukrainian side of the EU-Ukraine Civil Society Platform (US CSP), appeal to the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to support the draft law of Ukraine “On amendments to the code of administrative offences of Ukraine and the Criminal Code of Ukraine concerning combating discrimination” (register. No. 5488 dated 13.05.2021), which is included in the agenda of the sixth session of the parliament and the urgent ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of violence against women and domestic violence (hereinafter referred to as the Istanbul Convention) and the introduction into the legislation of Ukraine of international standards for preventing and countering violence against women and domestic and gender-based violence.
We draw the attention of the general public that this legislative initiative is equally aimed at protecting the rights, freedoms and security of most of our fellow citizens, as well as ensuring respect for the legitimate rights and interests of certain social groups that are still being investigated in Ukraine, in particular people living with HIV (including women living with HIV), various religious communities, people with disabilities, LGBT communities, other groups and communities that differ on such grounds as race, skin color, political beliefs, gender, age, ethnic and social origin, citizenship, family and property status, language and place of residence, etc. Within the framework of cooperation with the subjects of power, our organizations are ready to provide expert support to the draft law at all stages of its consideration and promotion in accordance with the parliamentary regulations. We call on the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to support the draft law of Ukraine No. 5488 “On amendments to the Code of administrative offenses of Ukraine and the Criminal Code of Ukraine concerning combating discrimination”, which is included in the agenda of the sixth session of the parliament.
We appeal to the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to immediately ratify the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of violence against women and domestic violence (hereinafter referred to as the Istanbul Convention) and introduce international standards for preventing and countering violence against women and domestic and gender – based violence into the legislation of Ukraine.
The ratification of the Istanbul Convention promotes a comprehensive approach to combating violence against women and domestic violence and significantly complements existing tools, offers new definitions of terms, and strengthens protection against gender discrimination. The need to ratify the Istanbul Convention is due to the approximation of the current legislation of Ukraine to the legislation of the European Union, and is also related to Ukraine’s obligations in the field of human rights protection to the Council of Europe.
Statement of Working group No. 1 UNP EaP CSF and Working group No. 2 US CSP on combating discrimination, October 11, 2021
The proposal was initiated by Rostyslav Dzundza (coordinator of Working group No. 1, “Bureau of social and political development”). We thank Mr. Rostislav for the prepared draft statement.