Înapoi From Discrimination to Inclusion: Promoting the Right to Work for All People with Disabilities in Ukraine

From Discrimination to Inclusion: Promoting the Right to Work for All People with Disabilities in Ukraine

The NGO Fight for Right from Ukraine is implementing until April 2022 a project aiming at combating discrimination affecting disabled people in the country, through advocacy for improved legislation, and raising awareness about the rights of people with disabilities on the labour market. This project is carried out with the support of the European Union/Council of Europe joint programme Partnership for Good Governance, and its regional project ”Strengthening access to justice for victims of discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes in the Eastern Partnership.”

The organisation Fight for Right will:

  1. conduct a comprehensive analysis over the legal, political and social frame of the right to work for persons with disabilities in Ukraine and statistics available in this sphere;
  2. based on the analysis, prepare analytical materials on amendments to the legislation to prevent discrimination;
  3. carry out an advocacy campaign to promote analytical materials to accelerate their implementation at the national level;
  4. carry out an information campaign to teach persons with disabilities to defend their rights in court, to set precedents, which will also lead to the prevention of discrimination against people with disabilities in the workplace.

Issues related to discrimination against persons with disabilities in Ukraine, especially regarding their labour rights, have been raised for a long time, but in recent years the situation has become even more severe. The COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to this. At the moment, there is an imperfect legal framework for the employment of people with disabilities and low awareness among persons with disabilities about various mechanisms of protection of violated labour rights (judicial and extrajudicial). Finally, there is also a problem of employers' prejudice that hiring of employees with disabilities could lead to additional difficulties for the employer.

This is one of the six civil society supported by our regional project on anti-discrimination, in Armenia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine aimed at increasing access to justice for groups that experience discrimination, hate speech and hate crime.

This activity is implemented in the framework of the regional project “Strengthening access to justice for victims of discrimination, hate crime and hate speech in the Eastern Partnership,” funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in their Partnership for Good Governance II 2019-2022.

Ukraine 14 December 2021
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Strasbourg, France Strasbourg, 1-2 July 2024
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Addressing hate speech and hate crime: regional gathering of the network of Equality Bodies from the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership Region

A two-day workshop on addressing hate speech and hate crime took place at the premises of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, involving Equality bodies from the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership regions.  The event supported by the EU and Council of Europe, gathered 50 representatives from both regions who discussed and exchanged on the best practices, measures and common challenges when addressing hate speech and hate crime. Through monitoring and reporting, policy advocacy, raising awareness and supporting victims equality bodies play a fundamental role in protecting human rights and ensuring that all individuals are treated equally.

In her opening remarks, Angela Longo, Head of Anti-discrimination Co-operation Unit, Council of Europe, underlined the significant progress in engaging with Equality Bodies through this network, regularly exchanging best practices and addressing the challenges of hatred and intolerance in societies. She highlighted that this new chapter of discussion delves into the grey area between hate speech and hate crime, addressing issues of incitement and biases,

Representatives from Equality Bodies had the opportunity to discuss and enhance their knowledge on the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers Recommendation to member States on combating hate crime, adopted on 7th May 2024, as well as gain a clearer understanding of EU standards in the field of hate crime. Moreover, participants engaged in exchanges with peers from the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE), who shared insights on addressing hate speech in the public discourse. The National Office Against Racial Discrimination (UNAR) in Italy provided practical examples for developing counter-narratives and raising awareness initiatives.

They also explored opportunities to advocate for legislative reform, foster multisectoral co-operation, enhance data collection, and overall improve national mechanisms to counter hate crimes.

This seminar was organised within the action “Promoting equality and combating racism and intolerance in the Western Balkans” and the project “Promoting equality and non-discrimination: towards more resilient and inclusive societies” – co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe, and implemented by the Council of Europe  under the joint Programmes “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye” and “Partnership for Good Governance”.

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