The Anti-Discrimination Centre « Memorial » and the Centre for Social and Gender Research attended the pre-session where several Ukrainian NGOs addressed their recommendations to National Permanent missions to the United Nations Office in view of the upcoming 28th Session of the Universal Periodic Review. ADC Memorial and the Centre for Social and Gender Research pointed out the problem of the list of forbidden for women professions.
Principal equal rights and equal opportunities for women and men as well as a prohibition on discrimination on the basis of gender are envisaged in the legislation of Ukraine. But the rights of women are limited in practice, as well as in some norms of labor laws inherited from the Soviet times: women still cannot work underground, cannot drive trains and big trucks, get employed for many positions on board of the ships etc .
ADC Memorial and the Centre for Social and Gender Research call the Permanent Missions to the United Nations Office to address Ukraine the following recommendations:
- Abrogate the list of prohibited occupations and sectors and promote women’s access to previously prohibited occupations.
- Identify efforts to create favorable working conditions so that women can work just like men in different sectors of the economy.
- Revise the Labor Code of Ukraine and remove from it articles that infringe upon the rights of women.
In March 2017 ADC Memorial launched the campaign #AllJobs4allWomen to oppose the list of forbidden for women profession and call for their cancellation in all Eastern European and Central Asian Countries.