President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree approving the National Human Rights Strategy.
Decree No. 119/2021 was published on the President’s website and comes into force on the day of its publication.
According to the text of the document, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine is instructed to draft, with the involvement of representatives of state and local authorities, as well as civil society institutions, domestic scientists and international experts, and to approve within three months an action plan for the implementation of the strategy for 2021-2023.
“The strategy is aimed at uniting society in matters of values of human rights and freedoms, which are ensured and protected on the basis of the principles of equality and non-discrimination. The document focuses on solving the main systemic problems in the field of ensuring the implementation and protection of human rights and freedoms in the face of new challenges the society is faced with,” the press service of the head of state said.
It is envisaged that the implementation of the strategy will be carried out in 27 main directions, including the prevention of torture and ill-treatment of people, ensuring the right to a fair trial, ensuring freedom of peaceful assembly and association, preventing and combating discrimination, ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men, combating domestic violence, ensuring the rights of indigenous peoples and national minorities, ensuring the rights of the child, environmental rights, the rights of war veterans, the rights of internally displaced persons and persons living in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
The implementation of the strategy also provides for the restoration of the rights of persons deprived of their liberty as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and the occupation of a part of the territory, ensuring the rights of persons who disappeared under special circumstances and their family members, overcoming the negative consequences of the conflict caused by the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, etc.
The result of the implementation of the strategy should be the introduction of a systematic approach to ensuring human rights and freedoms, as well as the coordination of actions of the authorities, civil society and business and the creation in Ukraine of an effective mechanism for the implementation and protection of human rights and freedoms.
In addition, the implementation of the strategy should ensure progress in the implementation of Ukraine’s international treaties in the field of human rights, in particular the Association Agreement with the European Union, as well as contribute to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals of Ukraine for the period up to 2030 and improve the country’s position in international human rights rankings.
