From the threshold of the new year 2018, we would not only like to wish you happiness and success while defending human rights and fighting against discrimination, but also to draw the results of the past year.
For ADC “Memorial” the causes of defending the rights of migrants and stateless persons, ethnic minorities , women, LGBTI persons and other vulnerable groups remained most important. We have started information campaigns: millions of people learned through social networks about the campaign #StopLGBTpersecution, initiated by ADC “Memorial” in solidarity with people persecuted in Chechnya and Donbas.
The focus of our work in defense of women’s rights was the #AllJobs4allWomen campaign. The aim of this campaign has been to abolish the lists of professions prohibited for women. This discriminatory labor regulation dating back to the Soviet era continues to be practiced In Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan and all Central Asian Republics; till the end of 2017 it took place also in Ukraine and Moldova. The campaign’s webpage reports on the activities of activists, lawyers, lawmakers, which have joined ADC Memorial’s work in order to abolish gender discrimination in labor sphere. The main achievement of the past year has been the abolition of the list of professions prohibited for women in Ukraine. This became possible due to the activities of our partner in Kyiv, the Center for social and gender studies, and the Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada deputy Svetlana Voitsekhovskaya, as well as the implementation of the recommendation of the UN CEDAW to Ukraine in 2017.
We congratulate all women in Ukraine on this success and wish women in Moldova, Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan and the Central Asian countries to achieve the same result!
We would like to express our greatest respect for the courage and determination of women, who fight for their rights in the Russian Federation, including Svetlana Medvedeva, who succeeded in persuading recognition by a Russian Court herself being discriminated when denied access to the job she had been trained for as a deck/engine rating on a river ship; truck driver Yevgenia Markova, who initiated a letter to the Russian ombudsperson concerning the list of professions prohibited for women (it was signed by many women denied access to the jobs they wanted); all those who decided to act up against discrimination and violation of their rights, such as lady interviewed for recent video report.
When the victims of discrimination start to fight for their own rights and resolutely act against injustice, the world is changing to the better.
2018 will be better than the previous year! Congratulations and best wishes!
Photo by Kaique Rocha from Pexels