Year of work by the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights

Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights

The human rights have been the first victim and principal target in this war, which has caused major changes in the work of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights. In 2022, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights received 42,485 petitions, including 562 collective petitions from 7,779 persons and 41,923 individual petitions.

The approach to working with citizens’ petitions has been materially changed. The hot line — 0800-50-17-20 — has been upgraded: it registers all oral petitions from citizens and enables processing each incoming call and giving professional consultation.

There is a pressing need to respond to new challenges and to introduce new tools of human rights protection. The Commissioner has introduced 9 fundamental fields of work¹, including the separate issues associated with the military aggression:

1. Rights of citizens affected by the armed aggression against Ukraine
2. Rights of children and families, youth and sports
3. Human rights in the defence sector and rights of veterans and the military, prisoners of war and their family members
4. International cooperation
5. Observance of social and economic rights
6. Right to a fair trial and procedural rights
7. Observance of information rights
8. Monitoring of observance of equal rights and freedoms, rights of national minorities, political and religious beliefs
9. Implementation of the national preventive mechanism

The approach to working in the territory of Ukraine has materially changed. Despite the safety situation, the Commissioner tries to develop the regional network of the Commissioner’s representatives responsible for the specific administrative unit, oblast. It enables bringing the service of consulting on human rights closer to citizens and simplifying access to contact the Commissioner².

During 2022, the structural subdivisions of the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights conducted 2,031 monitoring visits.

The priority of the Office was to protect children’s rights: the new space friendly to children and families with children, the Consultation Centre of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights with the equipped mother-and-child room, was opened on 18 August 2022 as a part of operation of the information and communication portal “Children of War”³. Similar consultation centres were also opened on 9 December 2022 in the cities of Khmelnytskyi and Lviv. The network of the Consultation Centres will be expanded in 2023.

Special attention is paid by the Commissioner’s Office to protection of rights of those affected by the armed aggression against Ukraine. In December 2022, the Special Report of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights on the Observance of the Rights of Persons Affected by the Armed Aggression of the Russian Federation for the Period from 24 February to 31 October 2022 was presented.⁴

Ombudsman and international cooperation

The Commissioner’s international work became considerably more intense in 2022. The priorities of the Commissioner’s activity within the framework of international cooperation were:

• promoting development of new mechanisms and platforms to protect human rights in Ukraine at the international arena;
• bringing objective information on gross violation of human rights and war crimes by the aggressor state to the attention of the international audience;
• negotiating with the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Russian Federation⁵ regarding release of prisoners of war, termination of the crime of keeping civilians hostage as well as return of the Ukrainian children who have been taken away from Ukraine by force;
• involving non-governmental organizations and NHRI into protection of rights of the Ukrainian citizens who have been forced to leave Ukraine and stay in third countries.

Since the onset of the armed aggression of the RF, there has been a pressing need to join the international efforts and record war crimes to bring the guilty liable in the future.

On 16 March 2022, the Commissioner spoke at the meeting of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights by the invitation of the Chairperson the Committee, and emphasised the efficient recording of violation of the rules of international humanitarian law, war crimes, crimes against humanity, to transfer the records to the International Criminal Court and hold the guilty liable in the future⁶.

On 30 March 2022, the Commissioner spoke at the 49th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council and urged the UN Member States to avail of all the opportunities to tighten the sanction pressure upon the RF, to take the most prompt resolution on introducing the air-exclusion zone over Ukraine, and to accelerate the establishment of the Special Military Tribunal to hold the RF liable for its crimes.

During the reporting period, the Commissioner had trips abroad to the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Austria, the Kingdom of Belgium, the French Republic, the Italian Republic, the Swiss Confederation, the Republic of Croatia, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

In 2022, 178 high-level bilateral meetings were held with the international partners, namely the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross⁷, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, and the European Ombudsman.

The Commissioner provided the information on violation of human rights in the context of the full-scale Russian aggression, which was included into the reports of international organisations and expert groups. In particular, the data were included into the reports of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism’s Missions of Experts⁸ on violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Russian Federation and its armed forces during the ongoing invasive war against Ukraine, which were published in April and July 2022.

The Commissioner had a number of personal meetings with the members of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, which was established pursuant to Resolution of UN Human Rights Council A/HRC/49/L.1 of 4 March 2022. In particular, during the meetings with the experts in April, September and December 2022, the Commissioner furnished the information on the conditions in which the Ukrainian and Russian prisoners of war were held, on civilian hostages, the humanitarian situation in the temporarily occupied territories, observance of rights of internally displaced persons, and the situation in the regions with the largest numbers of internally displaced persons. The corresponding information from the NHRI of Ukraine was included into the interim reports of the Commission to be further presented to the United Nations HRC at their scheduled sessions.

During his visit to Geneva, Switzerland, the Commissioner took part in the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council, in particular, in presentation of the interim report of the Commission on 23 September 2022, and also made a speech within the framework of the interactive dialogue of the Human Rights Council on the human rights situation in Ukraine and held a number of bilateral meetings with the President of the UN Human Rights Council Federico Villegas and other UN officials⁹.

On 30 August 2022, the Commissioner had a meeting with the members of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva in order to inform the UN Committee of the violations of and encroachment upon rights of the Ukrainian children and families with children not only in Ukraine, but also abroad¹⁰. The act of armed aggression by the RF has been an example of devaluation of children’s life and disregard of children’s rights in general. The Commissioner emphasised the importance of development of international mechanisms for resolving matters of return of deported children and their reunion with their families.

From 2018 to 2022, the Committee was regularly sent updates on Ukraine’s progress in implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, namely implementation of the deinstitutionalisation reform, educational reform (New Ukrainian School), formation of child-friendly justice etc. However, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the RF made our country change the priorities and adapt to the new reality when the right to life has become the most important and valuable one. The members of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed their support to Ukraine and its citizens and agreed with the need to develop the corresponding international mechanisms for protecting their rights.

The Commissioner furnished his proposals on the new Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine for 2023-2026. The Action Plan “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” adopted by the CE Committee of Ministers on 14 December 2022 has the largest budget of 50 million euros for the CE Member State in history; it is based on recovery of Ukraine and observation of human rights and rule of law as fundamental values of the Council of Europe. Following the adoption of the Action Plan on 15 December 2022, the Commissioner met the Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, where the sides decided on the fields of cooperation for the subsequent period since Ukraine is a European country where human rights are an important element of the policy, and the state respects international law despite the Russian aggression.

Ukraine’s adherence to the high standards of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, which are a basis of the EU as an association and the entire democratic world, resulted in the resolution of the leaders of 27 EU Member States to grant Ukraine the status of a candidate for EU membership on 23 June 2022. The Commissioner participated in completion of the questionnaire for Ukraine to obtain the status of a candidate for EU membership.

The problem of observation of human rights in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine is on the agenda of the international NHRI, ombudsmen and their associations. During the year, the Commissioner had regular contacts with the heads of all the most influential NHRI networks: the Chair and Secretary General of the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI), the Chairperson of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), the President of the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI), the leaders of the European Network of Ombudsmen (ENO), the Head of the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC), and the leaders of the European Ombudsman Institute (EOI).

On 27 April 2022, the Commissioner took part in the conference of the European Network of Ombudsmen (ENO) “The role of Ombudsmen in times of crisis” for the first time, by the invitation of European Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly. The colleague ombudsmen were informed of the violation of the fundamental right of the Ukrainian citizens to life by the occupying army: indiscriminate killing of civilians and shelling of settlements and infrastructure with unconventional weapons, torture of civilians in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

On 29 September 2022, the Commissioner was invited by the European Ombudsman to join the ENO, which meant acknowledgement of the European integration work of the Commissioner’s institute to bring the standards of observation of human rights in Ukraine in line with the EU standards.

On 20-22 August 2022, Sirpa Rautio, the Chair, and Debbie Kohner, the Secretary General, took a visit to Ukraine for the first time in history of the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI)¹¹. The leaders of the network personally witnessed the human consequences of the full-scale war against Ukraine when they visited the deoccupied territories of Kyiv Oblast¹² and the humanitarian effects for millions of our citizens during their trips to the regions. In order to support the work of protection of human rights and freedoms and the Commissioner’s work in this field, the ENNHRI established the special Solidarity Fund for Ukraine¹³.

The Conference of Ombudspersons and National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) was held in Zagreb, Croatia on 26 October 2022 as a part of the First Parliamentary Summit of the Crimea Platform. The Conference titled Battle for Human Rights. Crimea. Ukraine. World was conducted by the Commissioner together with Croatian Ombudswoman Tena Šimonović Einwalter¹⁴. The event was attended by 68 participants from 60 countries and heads and representatives of the key associations and networks of Ombudsmen and NHRIs (GANHRI, ENNHRI, IOI, ENO, EOI). Following the discussions at the event, the joint Declaration of the conference participants¹⁵ was adopted for the sake of proactive measures in order to draw the global community’s attention to violation of human rights in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

On 8-11 December 2022, Chris Field, the President of the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI), and Rob Behrens, the Vice-President of IOI Europe and the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman of the United Kingdom, came to Ukraine to participate in the International Conference “Human Rights in Dark Times” on 9 December 2022, which was attended by the President of Ukraine and dedicated to the Human Rights Day¹⁶. Despite the recommendations of their governments not to visit Ukraine due to the war escalation risk, the leaders of the IOI supported Ukraine during the hardest period in order to demonstrate solidarity and support by the ombudsmen from all over the world in the battle for human rights¹⁷.

Owing to the joint efforts and the proactive stance of the IOI President, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the RF was expelled from the largest global network of the Ombudsmen on 5 August 2022 for violation of the organisation’s working principles; the organisation now has 204 members¹⁸.

In order to inform of violations of human rights by the aggressor state and to promote protection of rights of Ukrainian citizens in foreign states, the Commissioner held more than 50 bilateral meetings with the Ombudsmen and heads of the NHRIs of such countries as Croatia, Moldova, Georgia, Greece, Cyprus, Poland, the United Kingdom, Italy, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Denmark, Turkey, Tajikistan, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Mongolia, Costa Rica, Serbia and Sweden.

The Commissioner’s activities enhanced the position of Ukraine at the international arena and helped the international partners realise that violations of human rights in Ukraine as a result of the aggression of the RF were a problem not only for Ukraine, but also Europe and the entire world.

Working with the legal and regulatory framework

The Commissioner submits proposals on the measures to be taken to restore and protect human and civil rights, namely by amending the effective legislation or participating in drafting of new legislative regulations, creating corresponding mechanisms for implementation thereof. Moreover, the Commissioner carries out analysis and expert examination of draft legal and normative acts submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for consideration and included into agenda of the committees established at the authorities or received for consideration from ministries, agencies and other central executive authorities.

During 2022, the structural subdivisions of the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights processed 3,784 draft legal and normative acts, including:

The considerable share of the legal and normative acts processed are documents in the field of ensuring social and economic rights of citizens, including the right to education, health care, cultural and environmental rights as well as protection of labour and consumer rights.

The Commissioner’s recommendations on the draft acts were taken into consideration, which helped protect the rights:

• to insurance benefits by the healthcare professionals and family members of the deceased healthcare professionals of private healthcare institutions in connection with the death resulting from infection with the acute respiratory disease COVID-19 caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 during the performance of their official duties with the elevated infection risk¹⁹;
• to automatic extension of payment of the disability pension and the survivor’s pension to persons with disabilities due to the inability to pass the repeated examination by the MSEC during the martial law to confirm their disability²⁰;
• to annual pension adjustment by index from 1 March²¹;
• to confirmation of the labour activity periods for the purposes of pensionable service in case archives are destroyed in connection with hostilities (combat operations)²²;
• to different types of state social assistance to a wider range of persons²³;
• to confirmation of the right to benefits with the electronic certificate of the beneficiary’s category defined in Article 10-1 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Status of Veterans of War and Guarantees of Their Social Protection”²⁴;
• to guaranteed social services and care compensations to internally displaced persons at their new place of residence / stay during the state of emergency or martial law imposed in Ukraine²⁵;
• to the funds due under the court decision and to the alimony as the second-priority expenditures²⁶;
• to a labour contract with the employee with flexible working hours²⁷;
• to work in fire and rescue units in order to ensure local fire safety. The employees are guaranteed social security. The employees may be the persons who have turned 18, have full legal capacity, are capable of fulfilling their obligations by their health condition, which is certified with preliminary and regular medical examinations²⁸;
• in addition to the principal job, to performance of other paid work under a labour contract during the time free from the principal job, and to wages for the actual work²⁹;
• issue of unified forms of understandable bills to consumers for heating, hot water supply, centralised water supply and waste water disposal services³⁰.

The broad-scale invasion by the Russian Federation has caused the need to improve the legislation on rights of military servants as well as victims of the armed aggression against Ukraine. Thus, when the draft law (registration No. 8081) of 28.09.2022, which provided for granting military servants a part of their basic annual leave during martial law, was considered, the Commissioner furnished the specialised parliamentary Committee with his comments on the need to preserve a compassionate leave. The comments were taken into consideration in the adopted draft law³¹.

The Commissioner emphasised the need to bring the rules of point 1(6) of Article 615 of the CrPCU in line with the Constitution of Ukraine as regards immediate release of a person unless he or she is serviced a justified court decision on placement into custody within 72 hours after the detention. In July 2022, a letter was sent to the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Law Enforcement regarding the need to eliminate the inconsistency of Article 615 of the CrPCU in terms of lawfulness of limitation of everyone’s right to liberty and security. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted Law of Ukraine No. 2462-IX of 27.07.2022 “On Amending the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine to Improve Certain Clauses on Pre-Trial Investigation during Martial Law”, which resolved that issue.

The work was also performed with governmental documents. Owing to the Commissioner’s response, amendments were made on 04.11.2022 to Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 328 of 20.03.2022 “Certain Aspects of Providing Long-Lived Consumer Goods to the Population during Martial Law”³², which removed the discriminatory clause that prevented the IDPs paid an accommodation benefit from receiving food packages.

The comments were provided to the Ministry of Social Policy after the draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “On Approving the List of Categories of Socially Unprotected Categories of the Population Eligible for Accommodation in Buildings for Temporary Residence of Internally Displaced Persons”, which was developed in pursuance of Law of Ukraine No. 2254-ІХ of 12.05.2022 “On Amending Certain Laws of Ukraine as to the Priority Actions in Reformation of the Urban Development Activity”.

In particular, it was prescribed by the draft resolution that buildings for temporary residence of IDPs were going to be provided in the first place to staff of the enterprises relocated (evacuated) from the combat zone as well as persons belonging to socially unprotected categories. However, the draft resolution did not specify the priority of provision of temporary accommodation to socially unprotected categories in case, for instance, a family with many children, a foster family, an adoptive family or a family of defenders of Ukraine claimed accommodation in buildings for temporary residence of IDPs at the same time, whereof the owner of the document was informed. The Commissioner submitted his proposals.

Another important task of the Ukrainian Parliament was to revise the national legislation in order to observe rights of national minorities and adopt the corresponding law, which was one of the conditions set by the European Commission in its assessment of Ukraine’s application for membership in the European Union.

The Commissioner’s Secretariat took active part in development of the new Law and assisted in organisation and holding of a number of activities in order to accelerate adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On National Minorities (Communities) of Ukraine”.

On 15 July 2022, the Secretariat organised the work meeting chaired by the Commissioner regarding observance of rights of the national minorities (communities) of Ukraine in time of war, with participation of the Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine and representatives of the national minorities (communities) of Ukraine. The stances on the draft Law of Ukraine “On National Minorities (Communities) of Ukraine” were coordinated with the representatives of civil society and international organisations of the national communities.

On 21 November 2022, the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Human Rights, Deoccupation and Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories in Ukraine, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations held the public discussion of the draft Law of Ukraine “On National Minorities (Communities) of Ukraine”.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted Law of Ukraine No. 2827-IX “On National Minorities (Communities) of Ukraine” on 13 December 2022.

Ombudsman, civil society and media

The Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights carries out parliamentary control over observance of human rights with participation of representatives of the civil society, scientists and individual experts. In order to inform the Ukrainian citizens and international community of the challenges faced by the Commissioner in his work in connection with the broad-scale armed aggression against Ukraine, the systemic interaction with the media representatives has been established, and own information platforms on social media are developed.

The principles used by the Commissioner in his interaction with representatives of the civil society and media include openness, engagement, efficiency and professionalism.

The systemic interaction with the human rights defence community is carried out via meetings of the Advisory Council at the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights³³ and the Advisory Council on the National Preventive Mechanism³⁴ at the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, which are co-chaired by the Commissioner together with the representatives of the non-governmental sector.

The experts of the Advisory Council take part not only in discussion of the relevant issues of human rights protection, but also submit their proposals on improvement of the legal and regulatory framework. The Commissioner’s Secretariat engages the experts of the Advisory Council into formation of the working strategy as well as provision of comments and proposals on this Annual Report.

In order to ensure broader interaction with the public in the Secretariat, each of the Commissioner’s representatives has the themed Expert Board³⁵, which discusses the relevant issues of human rights protection and possible ways to mitigate negative effects of the armed aggression that has caused mass violations of human rights. The Expert Boards are turning into the principal platform to engage the best specialists and exchange information, and also to plan actions in order to notify the population of possible human rights protection tools.

In addition to work for the Advisory Councils and Expert Boards, there are other types of cooperation:

• involving public monitors into visits to places of custody and implementation of the NPM+;
• conducting monitoring visits into the regions together with civil society organisations;
• working under memoranda of cooperation and implementation of joint projects, in particular, international technical assistance projects;
• involving human rights defenders as representatives of the civil society as Advisers of the Ukrainian Ombudsman (full time and on a voluntary basis);
• running joint information and awareness raising campaigns, participating in round tables, conferences, presentations and other types of public events jointly;
• holding joint educational and awareness raising events for the staff of the Secretariat with participation of experts from human rights defence organisations;
• interacting with representatives of the Ukrainian civil society outside Ukraine, involving Ukrainians abroad into promotion of human rights values;
• conducting briefings, presentations, press conferences with participation of the public;
• giving comments and interacting with the Ukrainian and international media;
• communicating on social media openly.

Principal events organised by the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights in 2022:

- public presentation of 100 Days of the Ukrainian Ombudsman’s Work³⁶;

- opening of the Consultation Centre of the Ukrainian Ombudsman³⁷;

- international conference “Human Rights in Dark Times”³⁸;

- 10 years of the National Preventive Mechanism³⁹;

- meetings with associations of families of prisoners of war, political prisoners etc⁴⁰.