ZMINA joins group to assess National Human Rights Strategy implementation

Aliona Luniova, Advocacy Manager at ZMINA Human Rights Centre, became a member of the Interagency Working Group (IWG) to assess the progress of the implementation of the National Human Rights Strategy. Luniova was elected as the IWG secretary.

On May 12, 2021, the IWG membership and regulations were approved by the Government Resolution. Thus, the group membership consists of the representatives of all ministries at the level of deputy ministers, the government commissioners for gender policy, rights of persons with disabilities, the Education Ombudsperson, as well as the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, members of the Parliament of Ukraine, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, representatives of international organizations.

Currently, the only representative of non-governmental organizations in the IWG is Aliona Luniova who was elected as its secretary at the first meeting of the group.

Aliona Luniova is a human rights activist and lawyer by profession. She was forced to leave Crimea with the onset of the armed conflict and the occupation of the peninsula and has since been actively involved in protecting the rights of victims of conflict and advocating for relevant legislative changes. Since the autumn of 2020, she has been an adviser to the chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Human Rights, De-occupation, and Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories. Aliona Luniova has been actively involved in civil monitoring of the implementation of the Human Rights National Strategy since 2017.

Aliona Luniova

The IWG is a temporary advisory body of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine formed for the period of implementation of the National Human Rights Strategy.

The IWG will analyze the state of affairs and the causes of problems arising in the human rights area. In addition, an important task of the working group is to assess the progress of the implementation of the National Human Rights Strategy and prepare proposals and recommendations for its effective implementation.

Thus, the IWG members will monitor the implementation of the action plan for the National Human Rights Strategy, studying the results of activity of central and local executive bodies, local self-government bodies, enterprises, and more.

To assess the implementation of the Strategy, the IWG will analyze the indicators of the document, as well as administrative data, statistical information, sociological surveys, public opinion polls, results of monitoring of observance of human rights and freedoms. The IWG will also inform the Cabinet of Ministers on the progress of the Strategy implementation.

Monitoring the implementation of the National Human Rights Strategy is crucial as the opinions of the authorities and NGO differed during the assessment of the implementation of the first strategy. For example, the Ministry of Justice claimed last year that 54.8% of the action plan measures had been implemented in the first quarter of 2020, while the monitoring of NGOs revealed only 28%.

The National Human Rights Strategy is a basic document that defines the vectors of state policy in the field of implementation and protection of human rights in Ukraine. The Strategy was first approved by the President in 2015 and was substantially updated in March 2021. The main reason for updating the document was the inconsistency and irrelevance of a significant part of the Strategy provisions. In June 2021, the Government approved the action plan for the updated National Strategy.