Human rights in Ukraine is a highly contested topic. Since 2017, 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.

Background

Prior to 1991

As part of the Soviet Union, all human rights were severely limited. The

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

was a

one-party A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government ...

state until 1990 and a totalitarian state from 1927 until 1953 where members of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

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

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...

s, independent churches or opposition political parties. The freedom of movement within and especially outside the country was limited.

1991-2014

In 1991 Ukraine declared independence. The referendum on the Act of Declaration of Independence was held in

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

on 1 December 1991. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', page 1976 An overwhelming majority of 92.3% of voters approved the

declaration of independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of th ...

made by the

Verkhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Верхо́вна Ра́да Украї́ни, translit=, Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, translation=Supreme Council of Ukraine, Ukrainian abbreviation ''ВРУ''), often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the ...

on 24 August 1991. Until 8 June 1995, Ukraine's supreme law was the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

(Fundamental Law) of the

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

(adopted in 1978, with numerous later amendments). On 8 June 1995, President

Leonid Kuchma Leonid Danylovych Kuchma ( uk, Леоні́д Дани́лович Ку́чма; born 9 August 1938) is a Ukrainian politician who was the second president of Ukraine from 19 July 1994 to 23 January 2005. Kuchma's presidency saw numerous corru ...

and Speaker

Oleksandr Moroz Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Morozrussian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Моро́з, translit=Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Moroz (born 29 February 1944) is a Ukrainian politician. He was the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada twice, ...

(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 Constitutional Court of Ukraine ( ua, Конституційний Суд України) is the sole body of constitutional jurisdiction in Ukraine. The Constitutional Court of Ukraine interprets the Constitution of Ukraine in terms of l ...

, 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 Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

Time and for the first time enshrined the obligations of human rights into law.

was labelled as "free" by Freedom House in 2009. 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 A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

activities.

Trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

s 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." 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 rocess of theformation of a

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

as a national policy, as well as securing the rights of national minorities." According to

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

(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." After the early 2010 election of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Viktor Yanukovych Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych ( uk, Віктор Федорович Янукович, ; ; born 9 July 1950) is a former politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 until he was removed from office in the Revolution of D ...

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." 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 The Security Service of Ukraine ( uk, Служба безпеки України, translit=Sluzhba bezpeky Ukrainy}) or SBU ( uk, СБУ, link=no) is the law enforcement authority and main intelligence and security agency of the Ukrainian ...

, 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''. Also in 2011 Amnesty International spoke of "an increase in the number of allegations of torture and ill-treatment in

police custody An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be questi ...

, restrictions on the freedom of speech and assembly, as well as mass manifestations of xenophobia". In Reporters Without Borders

Press Freedom Index The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders since 2002 based upon the organisation's own assessment of the countries' press freedom records in the previous year. It intends to re ...

2010 Ukraine had fallen from 89th place to 131. Neighboring Russia's press freedom was ranked at position 140. The International Federation for Human Rights called Ukraine "one of the countries seeing the most serious violations against human rights activists" in December 2011. 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 The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

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

Donbass The Donbas or Donbass (, ; uk, Донба́с ; russian: Донба́сс ) is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine. Parts of the Donbas are controlled by Russian separatist groups as a result of the Russo-Ukrai ...

regions.

International and European human rights treaties

Ukraine is a party to the following international treaties

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is a multilateral treaty that commits nations to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, fr ...

( ICCPR) *(First) Optional Protocol to the ICCPR *

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (GA) on 16 December 1966 through GA. Resolution 2200A (XXI), and came in force from 3 January 197 ...

* Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women ( CEDAW) *Optional Protocol to CEDAW *

Convention on the Rights of the Child The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly abbreviated as the CRC or UNCRC) is an international human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The Co ...

(CRC) *Optional Protocol to the CRC on the involvement of children in armed conflict *

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) is a United Nations convention. A third -generation human rights instrument, the Convention commits its members to the elimination of racial discri ...

Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (commonly known as the United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT)) is an international human rights treaty under the review of the United Nation ...

* Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture * Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951) *

Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees The Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees is a key treaty in international refugee law. It entered into force on 4 October 1967, and 146 countries are parties. The 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees restric ...

(1967) Ukraine signed but not yet ratified * Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

Ukraine is a party to the following European treaties

European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by t ...

(ECHR) (1950) *Protocol No. 6 to the ECHR concerning the abolition of the death penalty in times of peace (1983) *Protocol No. 12 to the ECHR concerning the general prohibition of discrimination (2000) *Protocol No. 13 to the ECHR concerning the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances (2002) * Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities

Situation

A peaceful demonstration in Kharkiv during the 2004 Orange Revolution

As of 17 January 2013 Ukraine had lost all of its 211 cases at the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...

Mass graves found in areas liberated from Russian control

After Bucha, Lyman,

Makariv Makariv (, ) is an urban-type settlement in Bucha Raion, in Kyiv Oblast (province) of Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Makariv settlement hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. The population of the settlement is , down from 12,042 in ...

, and Kherson were liberated from Russian occupation, Ukraine discovered mass graves containing bodies of civilians. Victims frequently bore evidence of torture.

Electoral rights

International observers, including Freedom House and the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

, 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 Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

and Communist parties are banned.

The right to receive a fair trial

Amendments to the constitution, which came into force, were detrimental to the right to receive a

fair trial A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Types Variations of fairs incl ...

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. Independent lawyers and human rights activists have complained Ukrainian judges regularly come under pressure to hand down a certain verdict. According to Freedom House, the judiciary has become more efficient and less corrupt since the

Orange Revolution The Orange Revolution ( uk, Помаранчева революція, translit=Pomarancheva revoliutsiia) was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate afterm ...

. Recent (since 2010) trials of high-profile political figures

Yulia Tymoshenko Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko ( uk, Юлія Володимирівна Тимошенко, ; Hrihyan ();Yuriy Lutsenko Yuriy Vitaliyovych Lutsenko ( uk, Юрій Віталійович Луценко; born 14 December 1964) is a Ukrainian politician whose most recent post was Prosecutor General of Ukraine from 12 May 2016Valeriy Ivaschenko have been described by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

, the United States and other international organizations as "unfair, untransparent and not independent" and "

selective prosecution In jurisprudence, selective prosecution is a procedural defense in which defendants argue that they should not be held criminally liable for breaking the law, as the criminal justice system discriminated against them by choosing to prosecute. In ...

of political opponents".

Language rights

Multiple languages have always been spoken in what is now Ukraine. In the 19th century the Russians and Jews were the main ethnic groups in the urban areas while the countryside was mostly Ukrainian. Ukraine has a history of linguistic conflict dating back to at least the nineteenth century. In 1863, Russian Minister of Internal Affairs

Pyotr Valuev Count Pyotr Aleksandrovich ValuevAlso transliterated Peter Alexandrovich Valuyev. ( rus, Граф Пётр Алекса́ндрович Валу́ев; September 22, 1815 – January 27, 1890) was a Russian statesman and writer. Life Valuev ...

issued a

circular Circular may refer to: * The shape of a circle * ''Circular'' (album), a 2006 album by Spanish singer Vega * Circular letter (disambiguation) ** Flyer (pamphlet), a form of advertisement * Circular reasoning, a type of logical fallacy * Circular ...

that banned the publication of religious texts and educational texts written in the Ukrainian language. The

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

policy towards the Ukrainian language varied from the promotion of it under

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

indigenization Indigenization is the act of making something more native; transformation of some service, idea, etc. to suit a local culture, especially through the use of more indigenous people in public administration, employment and other fields. The term is ...

") to the persecution of the pro-Ukrainian language movement under

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

, 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 Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and 198 ...

. Following Ukraine's declaration of independence in 1991, the previous pro-Russian policies were reversed and the use of the

Ukrainian language Ukrainian ( uk, украї́нська мо́ва, translit=ukrainska mova, label=native name, ) is an East Slavic language of the Indo-European language family. It is the native language of about 40 million people and the official state lan ...

was actively encouraged and in certain areas, it was made compulsory. The 1996

stated that Ukrainian is the state language, and it also stated that the free use and development of

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

and other national minority languages is also permitted. Subsequent legislation made the use of Ukrainian mandatory in various areas of public life. 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 The Karaim language (Crimean dialect: , Trakai dialect: , traditional Hebrew name , , "language of the nomads") is a Turkic language with Hebrew influences, similarly to Yiddish or Judaeo-Spanish. It is spoken by only a few dozen Crimean Karait ...

, as well as those languages that are the

official languages of the European Union The European Union (EU) has 24 official languages, of which threeEnglish, French and Germanhave the higher status of "procedural" languages of the European Commission (whereas the European Parliament accepts all official languages as working la ...

. However, significant minority languages in Ukraine, such as

, Belorussian and

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, are neither official EU languages nor indigenous, and concerns have been raised about their protection. For example, print and online publications in languages that do not meet these criteria are prohibited unless they also have a Ukrainian translation, and secondary schooling in these languages is prohibited. The differential treatment of minority languages has been criticized on human rights and discrimination grounds by the

Venice Commission The Venice Commission, officially European Commission for Democracy through Law, is an advisory body of the Council of Europe, composed of independent experts in the field of constitutional law. It was created in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin ...

and the United Nations Human Rights Office. European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission)
Ukraine - Opinion on the Law on Supporting the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language
adopted by the Venice Commission at its 121st Plenary Session (Venice, 6–7 December 2019), pages 10-11, 16. CDL-AD(2019)032. Russia exaggerated the real language issues, using them to create a false justification for the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. ...

. False claims included claims that Ukraine has been committing

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Lat ...

, and claims that Ukrainians have been shooting people who speak Russian. In areas it controlled, Russia required that all classes be in Russian and allegedly tortured a teacher for teaching in Ukrainian.

Media freedom and freedom of information

In 2007, in Ukraine's provinces numerous, anonymous attacks and threats persisted against journalists, who investigated or exposed corruption or other government misdeeds. The US-based

Committee to Protect Journalists The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, New York, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journ ...

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." Ukraine's ranking in Reporters Without Borders's

has in the latest years been around the 90th spot (89 in 2009, 87 in 2008), while it occupied the 112th spot in 2002 and even the 132nd spot in 2004. During the Russia-backed 2010-2014 Presidency of

was elected

President of Ukraine The president of Ukraine ( uk, Президент України, Prezydent Ukrainy) is the head of state of Ukraine. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, condu ...

, journalistic watchdogs complained about a deterioration of press freedom in Ukraine. 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. The Yanukovych Government said it did not censor the media, so did the Presidential AdministrationOpposition benefiting from topic of censorship at mass media, says Hanna Herman
''

Kyiv Post The ''Kyiv Post'' is the oldest English-language newspaper in Ukraine, founded in October 1995 by Jed Sunden. History American Jed Sunden founded the ''Kyiv Post'' weekly newspaper on Oct. 18, 1995 and later created KP Media for his holdings. ...

'' (13 May 2009) and President Yanukovych himself. 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. 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 newspaper by the Ukrainian Security Service for "violating Ukraine's territorial integrity" brought swift condemnation from the

and the

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, pro ...

. Ukraine has also shut down several television stations operated by Russia on the grounds that they purvey propaganda. 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. 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. Criticisms have been levelled at the decision to deprive

Taras Kozak Taras Romanovych Kozak ( uk, Тарас Романович Козак; born 6 April 1972, Sokilnyky, Pustomyty Raion, Lviv Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union) is a Ukrainian politician, state servant, businessman and media proprietor, and a cl ...

's TV channels of broadcasting licences. The investigation into the murder of the journalist

Pavlo Sheremet Paul () is a common masculine given name in countries and ethnicities with a Christian heritage (Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Protestantism) and, beyond Europe, in Christian religious communities throughout the world. Paul – or its variation ...

in 2016 were undermined by serious deficiencies and lack of credibility.

Freedom of expression and conscience

Torture and conditions in detention

Reports of

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...

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. In Eastern Ukraine, the SBU conducted torture and human rights abuses for alleged pro-Russian separatists. Some of this torture took place in secret prisons with unacknowledged detention. The existence of

black site In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black operation or black project is conducted. According to the Associated Press, "Black sites are clandestine jails where prisoners generally are not charged with ...

s was denounced by multiple reports of the UN monitoring mission in Ukraine, Amnesty International and

. 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. 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". According to Amnesty International, in 2021 abuse of prisoners remained "endemic". As reported by the Prosecutor General's Office, in March 2022 the

had ruled against Ukraine in 115 cases . 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. During the

numerous acts of torture of civilians and numerous acts of torture of prisoners of war by Russian forces have been documented, including rape and sexual violence against men, women, and children by Russian forces.

Human rights abuses and the HIV/AIDS epidemic

The Ukrainian government has taken a number of positive steps to fight

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

, 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.

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.

Human trafficking

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. 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. Charcoal production and pornography have been listed in the

U.S. Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the United States federal executive departments, executive departments of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of fede ...

's ''

List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor The ''List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor'' is an annual publication issued by the United States Government’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor. It has been published within the December 2014 D ...

'' 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.

Violence against women

Violence against women is an entrenched social problem in Ukrainian culture engendered by traditional male and female stereotypes. 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 Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, prom ...

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.

War in Donbas

During the ongoing

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War; uk, російсько-українська війна, rosiisko-ukrainska viina. has been ongoing between Russia (alongside Russian separatists in Ukraine) and Ukraine since February 2014. Following Ukraine's Rev ...

, Ukraine has lost control of the

and

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

. 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

(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 The European Social Charter is a Council of Europe treaty which was opened for signature on October 18, 1961 and initially became effective on February 26, 1965, after West Germany had become the fifth of the 13 signing nations to ratify it. B ...

(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".

Ukrainian human rights organizations

*Association "Civic Initiative" (Kirovohrad) *Association of Ukrainian Human Rights Monitors on Law Enforcement (Association UMDPL) :uk:Association of Ukrainian Human Rights Monitors on Law Enforcement (Association UMDPL) *Civic Methodics and Information Center «Universe» *Chernigiv Committee for the Protection of Citizen's Constitutional Rights *Committee of Voters of Ukraine *Congress of National Communities of Ukraine *Donetsk Memorial *"For Professional Assistance" (Poltava region) *

Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KhPG) is one of the oldest and most active Ukrainian human rights organizations. As a legal entity, it was established in 1992, but it has been working as a human rights protection group in the Ukrainia ...

*Odessa Human Rights Group "Veritas" * Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union * Road Control

International human rights organizations with branches in Ukraine

* Amnesty International Ukraine, led by Oksana Pokalchuk (2017–present) *International Society for Human Rights-Ukrainian Branch *

Moscow Helsinki Group The Moscow Helsinki Group (also known as the Moscow Helsinki Watch Group, russian: link=no, Московская Хельсинкская группа) is today one of Russia's leading human rights organisations. It was originally set up in 1976 ...

Notes

References

External links

*
Amnesty International 2017/2018 Report on Ukraine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Human Rights In Ukraine Politics of Ukraine

Propaganda in Russia