Solidarity is our weapon against Russian brutality to protect vulnerable groups – Oleksandra Romantsova

The cohesion and cooperation of state bodies and civil society to ensure the rights of vulnerable population groups is the cornerstone of strengthening Ukrainian society in the fight against ilegal Russian aggression. This was stated by the Eexecutive Director of the “Center for Civil Liberties” (CCL) Oleksandra Romantsova during an expert discussion of the situation in which vulnerable groups of the population found themselves after the start of the full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine on February 24, 2022 “Vulnerable groups against the background of a full-scale war: how to take into account the specifics of the needs?”.

“Cohesion is our weapon against Russia, which pursues an aggressive policy to destroy diversity. Therefore, it is now extremely important for Ukraine that the state and public sectors work together on developing a strategy to ensure the rights of vulnerable population groups during and after the war,” she emphasized.

In general, during the event, which took place within the framework of the “Point 7” project (official name “Promoting Social Cohesion in Ukraine”) in partnership with “Vostok-SOS” and the Center for Civil Liberties with the support of the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative in Ukraine (ABA ROLI Ukraine), various issues related to ensuring the rights of vulnerable population groups during the large-scale war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine were discussed.

In particular, Vyacheslav Likhachev, an expert of the Center for Civil Liberties, singled out the specifics in which Ukrainian Jews, Crimean Tatars and representatives of the LGBT community found themselves. Thus, the main problems and challenges that determine the peculiarities of the situation in which the Jewish community found itself is that its cultural and historical heritage suffered from hostilities. The socio-demographic structure of the Jewish community also affects the current state and prospects of Jews in Ukraine, which has its own specificity, because the Jewish community is very “old” in composition. Moreover, the peculiarity of the development of the Jewish community of Ukraine is determined by the attitude of the Jewish state towards Jewish refugees.

“Unlike Ukrainian refugees in European countries, in Israel they will immediately receive citizenship and additional assistance. In addition, Israel and the Jewish community have developed an infrastructure to help Jewish refugees move to Israel directly from Ukraine’s borders, and often within the country as well. Unlike the majority of Ukrainian refugees in Europe, these people will most likely not return to Ukraine,” said Vyacheslav Likhachev.

Describing the situation in which the Crimean Tatars found themselves, the human rights defender emphasized that the Crimean Tatars are a community that has been subjected to targeted persecution on the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea for 8 years.

“After February 24, the pressure on the Crimean Tatar community increased even more… It is in this direction that the support of the international community is especially needed, since it is about actions aimed at forced assimilation and cultural genocide. Disproportionally great pressure on the Crimean Tatars, bordering on ethnic discrimination, is another violation of international standards by Russia,” he added.

Vyacheslav Likhachev also touched on the issue of gender equality, which has become acute in the situation of large-scale Russian aggression.

“It seems that right now (in particular, in connection with the prospect of acquiring candidate status in the EU) there are circumstances that contribute to the advocacy of a number of specific issues, which, first of all, relate to the equalization of the rights of partners in same-sex couples,” – noted the CCL expert.

Anastasia Horpinchenko, communications manager of Vostok-SOS NGO, outlined the problems faced by the state in ensuring the rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs).

“IDPs feel two main urgent needs – provision of housing and humanitarian aid. The flow of people who want to leave does not stop, on a contrary it increases. This especially applies to Donbas – the number of people there has doubled. As for providing housing, in this context, the state should develop a long-term strategy for providing IDPs with housing. “Foreign partners are ready to rebuild former recreation centers, sanatoriums, former dormitories, schools, kindergartens, but there must be an understanding of how to interact with the state in this matter,” said the Vostok-SOS representative.

Julian Kondur, coordinator of the Chirikli Roma Women’s Foundation, emphasized that the Roma community is now actively involved in volunteering and the Armed Forces, in fact, as well as representatives of other vulnerable groups. However, there is a certain set of issues that require the intervention of the state, it is said, in particular, that cases of prejudice against Roma were recorded at the household level.

“In the first days of a full-scale invasion, complaints were recorded about the obstacles in the evacuation faced by Roma in various regions, as well as the provision of humanitarian aid to displaced persons. There were also shameful cases of lynching of alleged looters by, probably, representatives of the territorial defense, in which the real or imagined affiliation to the Roma community of the hypothetical offenders was emphasized,” he noted.

Representatives of state authorities also raised a number of other issues related to the protection of the rights of vulnerable population groups. It is, in particular, about the need to create a representative body of indigenous peoples.

During the meeting, issues of procedural difficulties that arise, in particular, before the Prosecutor’s Office of Crimea, during the investigation of cases of pressure and persecution of Ukrainian citizens by the Russian occupiers were also discussed.

The representative of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group, Andriy Didenko, emphasized, in particular, that those persons who are in prisons in the occupied territories need consistent protection, because they have actually become hostages of the Russian occupiers.