It all begins with “hate speech”

In April 2011 experts from the European Committee Against Racism and Intolerance came to Ukraine to check things with racist and ethnic discrimination here. They formulated a series of recommendations for the Ukrainian government on improving the current state of affairs. Most of them pertain to Ukraine’s legislation. “Although the Government has drawn up plans of action against xenophobia and racial and ethnic discrimination, the disbanding of the State Committee for Nationalities and Religion has left a vacuum in this connection. The country has no comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation. Moreover, despite the authorities’ intention to strengthen the legislation on asylum, the refugee-status determination procedures have been frozen on several occasions,” the report says.

It also mentions that there are less racist attacks but emphasizes that the problem is far from resolved: “Hate speech is often left untackled, although the number of antisemitic publications has dropped. The authorities are, of course, aware of the need to deal with neo-Nazi and skinhead football fans. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has abandoned its efforts to monitor racist incidents and groups systematically. Moreover, the extent of the problem is masked because perpetrators of hate crime tend to be prosecuted as hooligans.” One of the main recommendations to the Ukrainian government is to “identify the body that will coordinate the work on combating racism and racial discrimination” and to “guarantee at all times fair and effective refugee-status determination procedures.”

Manfred PROFAZI, chief of International Organization for Migration Mission in Ukraine:

“The Ukrainian government is taking positive steps to counteract racism and xenophobia. Setting up a structure responsible for, among other things, the realization of the 2010-12 Action Plan to Counteract Manifestations of Xenophobia and Racial and Ethnic Distrimination in Ukrainian Society can have a favorable effect. Last year information on 23 supposedly racial and interethnic attacks was received by the Diversity Initiative – a network of organizations coordinated by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration. This is three times more than in 2010. Forty persons, mostly students from African and Asian countries, suffered in these incidents. Unfortunately, this data is most likely incomplete and does not reflect the overall situation in Ukraine, particularly because a large number of interethnic attacks are left outside the attention of NGOs and law enforcement agencies because the victims are afraid to inform them. Hate speech in Ukrainian public discourse also requires special attention and reaction, because aggressive speech may later lead to aggressive actions.”