State Department says Ukraine makes progress on human rights (03/24/96)

State Department says Ukraine makes progress on human rights

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - Ukraine's human rights record in 1995 got a better than passing grade in the U.S. State Department's annual human rights report released on March 6.

"Over all, Ukraine continued to make significant progress toward building a law-based civil society," the report states, noting that the "already low" rights violations in 1994 decreased further in 1995.

The report found some problems, however, in the "unreformed legal and prison systems, occasional government attempts to control the press, beatings by police and prison officials, limits on freedom of association, restrictions on foreign religious organizations, societal anti-Semitism, some discrimination against women, and ethnic tensions in the Crimea."

Ukraine continues to take steps toward replacing its 1978 Soviet Constitution, such as the Constitutional Accord between the president and Parliament accepted last June, the report says. But while progress has been made toward ensuring an independent judiciary, the report adds, "the Soviet tradition of political interference in judicial decisions continues to affect the judicial process."

At the behest of Congress, the State Department began reporting on the state of human rights in foreign countries in 1977. Then, it covered the 82 countries receiving U.S. assistance. Since then, the mandate has been broadened to all member-states of the United Nations, and this year's report covers 194 countries.

The detailed, 6,500-word report on Ukraine notes that there were no political prisoners, "no known political killings by government agents," nor any "politically motivated disappearances" in Ukraine in 1995. (The yet-unexplained disappearance of a Rukh leader, Mykhailo Boychyshyn, happened in January 1994.)

While the Ukrainian Constitution prohibits torture and inhumane treatment of those arrested or imprisoned, the State Department says that police and prison officials "regularly beat" detainees and prisoners. Conditions of pre-trial detention "routinely fail to meet basic human rights standards," the report says, but adds that prison conditions for convicted inmates "appear to comply fully with minimum international standards."

The leadership of both the executive and judicial branches has supported the idea of an independent judiciary, but reforms of the existing system have not been completed, the report says, and they are now pending adoption of the new constitution. Neither has the Constitutional Court been appointed to resolve disputes over new legislation, the report adds.

Many of Ukraine's prosecutors and judges were appointed in Soviet times when, according to the report, political influence was the accepted norm. "It is unclear how free the judiciary is from influence and intimidation by the executive branch of government," the report notes. On the regional level, it says, judges, prosecutors and other court officials "appear to remain closely attuned to local government interests."

The State Department report found fault with the practice of having the prosecutor, and not a judge, issue search warrants, that the Security Service of Ukraine can conduct intrusive surveillance and searches without any warrant, and that the police can stop vehicles arbitrarily and without probable cause.

The report notes that a 1991 law provides for freedom of speech and the print media, and criticism of the government is tolerated. The broadcast media, however, remain under state ownership and management.

Freedom of assembly is curtailed by a law stipulating that permission for a demonstration must be obtained 10 days before a planned demonstration. The report also blamed elite Interior Ministry troops for using "excessive force" in July 1995 in breaking up the funeral of Patriarch Volodymyr in front of St. Sophia Cathedral.

Also circumscribed "by an onerous registration requirement" is the freedom of association, the report says. Organizations must register with the government, and many government agencies with registration functions have, at one time or another, abused them "to prevent citizens from exercising their right of free association for purposes of which the government does not approve."

The report notes that there is no state religion in Ukraine and that the government has not interfered in the registration of minority religions requested by Ukrainian citizens. Non-native religious organizations, however, have had their activities restricted by a law passed by the Supreme Council in December 1993.

A citizen's freedom of movement within the country is no longer restricted by law, the report says, but there is a requirement for registering one's residence and place of employment, without which a person can be denied access to such social benefits as free medical care.

Ukraine allows its citizens the right to change the government, and, the report adds, they have by electing a new president and a new Parliament. As for the role of women in politics, the report notes that they are well-represented on the local and oblast levels and less so at the national level, where there is one woman of Cabinet rank and 16 deputies in Parliament.

The Ukrainian Constitution prohibits discrimination based on sex, race and other such considerations. The report adds, however, that the government "has not taken steps to effectively enforce" these prohibitions. Prosecutions for sexual harassment or discrimination are unheard of, the report says, and dark-skinned young men who match the Caucusus criminal stereotype are frequently harassed by the police.

The State Department says the Ukrainian government is publicly committed to the defense of children's rights and that there is no pattern of familial or societal abuse of children in Ukraine.

On the rights of religious minorities, the report notes that Jews, the second largest minority in Ukraine, "have expanded opportunities to pursue their religious and cultural activities."

"The national government has protected the rights of the Jewish community and speaks out against anti-Semitism," the report states. "However, non-governmental manifestations of anti-Semitism continue, exemplified by the growth of UNA/UNSO, an ultra-nationalist extremist group...."

On the positive side, the report points out that Lviv Oblast authorities, after several years of delay, have allowed the local Jewish community to erect a monument at the site of a World War II German concentration camp and that the government "made a major effort" to ensure that pilgrims of the Bratslav Hasidic Jewish sect were able to visit the tomb of their founding rabbi in Uman on the occasion of the Jewish new year.

The report noted "only isolated cases of ethnic discrimination in Ukraine," thanks to the 1991 Law on National Minorities, which "played an instrumental role in preventing ethnic strife by allowing individual citizens to use their respective national languages in conducting personal business and by allowing minority groups to establish their own schools."

Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine complained about the increased use of Ukrainian in schools and in the media, the report said, and in the Crimea, the Ukrainian and Tatar minorities "credibly complain of discrimination by the Russian majority and are demanding that Ukrainian and the Crimean Tatar language be given equal treatment to Russian."

As for human rights in Russia, the State Department Human Rights Report noted that, "while Communist totalitarianism has been succeeded by electoral democracy, the future (there) remains uncertain."

The reporting year 1995 "saw continued and widespread use of Russian military force against civilians in Chechnya, the undermining of official institutions established to monitor human rights, and the continued violation of rights and liberties by security forces."

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