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Performance of the Commissioner for Human Rights in 2013: expert assessment

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25.07.2014

Developments of the past six months in Ukraine challenged the entire national system of protecting human rights. In the report "Efficiency of the Activities of Secretariat of Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights. 2013" presented on 23 July, human rights defenders aimed to assess the performance of the Commissioner's Secretariat both during the events of Euromaidan and in the course of past year.


2 reducedThe report, is authored by: Liudmyla Koval (Head of expert group on the performance of Commissioner for Human Rights, Kharkiv Human Rights Group), Oleksandra Matviychuk (Chair of the Board, Center for Civil Liberties), Tetiana Pechonchyk (Head of Human Rights Information Centre), and Inha Dudnik (Chair of the Board, Kirovohrad NGO "Territory of Success").

The presentation of report encompassed both positive developments that the Office managed to achieve during last year and a number of critical comments and recommendations.

In addition, the results of a survey on cooperation with the Commissioner's Secretariat during 2013 conducted among civil society organizations as well as a list of 2014 priorities of the Commissioner were also presented.


3 reducedExperts noted that due to the oppressive power of the state at highest national level, the institute of Commissioner alone was not able to withstand the system. The representatives of Secretariat continued to protect human rights during the events of Euromaidan, inter alia in cooperation with the Euromaidan_SOS civic initiative. At the same time, experts emphasized an excessive caution of the Commissioner in making public assessment of the activities of law enforcement bodies during the events that were taking place November 2013 – February 2014. Nevertheless, the Office of Commissioner remained if not the only state institution that human rights organizations did not express non-confidence and did not stop cooperation with due to the events of Euromaidan.

Another novelty of the Commissioner is expansion of the regional network – in addition to traditional appointment of the Commissioner's Representatives in the regions, Civil Regional Coordinators of the Ombudsperson on Public Relations were also established.
 
The experts paid significant attention to the Office's information policies and recommended using a more 'human-focused' approach to presentation the activities of the Commissioner. They also urged the Commissioner to provide mandatory response and present her public stance toward any socially significant issues in the area of human rights.
 
All experts maintained that the Office remained open to monitoring and positive criticism.

4 reducedFull text of the report is available here.

Results of a survey can be found here.
 
The report was produced within Democratization, Human Rights and Civil Society Development Programme implemented by UNDP in Ukraine with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark in 2013-2016.