Liudmyla Yankina receives National Human Rights Award

Liudmyla Yankina, project manager at Human Rights Centre ZMINA, and lawyer Yuriy Bilous became winners of the National Human Rights Award. 

Liudmyla Yankina

The award ceremony took place during the National Human Rights Non-Conference on Human Rights Day, December 10. 

“Being a human rights defender it’s not about doing a job, it’s about serving. Serving the rule of law, the values of human life, freedom and dignity. Serving those who cannot stand up for themselves. And I am grateful for the trust of those people whom I helped. Their trust gives strength and motivation to continue the struggle. But at the same time, I want to dedicate this award to those human rights defenders who had to take up arms and go to defend the country, to defend the lives and freedom of all of us, putting aside everything they had lived by before,” Yankina said. 

The human rights activist dedicated the award to her fellow human rights defenders and friends who are currently at the front – Yaroslav Malyk, Oleksiy Bida, Kostiantyn Reutskyi, Yevhenia Zakrevska, Maryna Lilichenko – and also to human rights defender Maksym Butkevych, currently held in captivity, and activist Roman Ratushnyi who, according to Yankina, is one of the brightest fighters for justice and who “now holds the sky.” 

Liudmyla Yankina is a Ukrainian human rights defender. In 2015, she joined the human rights movement and became a member of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA team. She worked as a manager of the project on residence registration system reform in Ukraine. In 2017, Yankina launched an interdisciplinary working group under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine whose activities were aimed at reforming the “registration of place of residence” and developing a corresponding legislative initiative. Yankina also took an active part in the electoral law reform, thanks to which Ukrainian citizens got the opportunity to exercise their right to vote at the place of their actual residence during the last presidential and local elections. 

At the same time, Liudmyla Yankina actively defends the rights of activists, LGBTIQ community representatives, women, national minorities, and indigenous peoples, refugees from countries with totalitarian regimes (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, etc.). 

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she has become a humanitarian volunteer and patronage nurse for the most vulnerable categories of the population. Yankina provided medicines, food, and medical supplies to people with disabilities, cancer patients, and elderly people in Kyiv city and Kyiv region. After the liberation of Kyiv region, she became the first female civilian volunteer who went to the liberated towns and villages with a humanitarian mission and carried out her activities even before the start of demining works. 

As a reminder, the National Human Rights Award is the all-Ukrainian non-governmental award that is given by the Human Rights Agenda platform for a personal contribution to the protection of human rights in Ukraine.