Within the preparation for the UN CERD session that will observe the state report on Ukraine in August, 2016, a meeting of NGOs – authors of shadow reports to the CERD and Ukrainian ministries representatives took place in the office of the Verkhovna Rada Ombudsperson.
The NGOs “No Borders”, “Right to Protection”, Association for Middle East Studies, Institute for Religious Freedom presented the main points of the report analysing the implementation of the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by Ukraine and the implementation of the previous recommendations of the Committee.
ADC Memorial and Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group focused on some important problems of opposing discrimination, in particular, the situation of Roma population, especially those who became victims of military conflict in Eastern Ukraine.
As Valeria Lutkovska, the Ombudsperson, said, despite HR defenders and state authorities often have opposite opinions, they agree that Ukraine should be the country respecting international HR standards and free from any discrimination.