UPO “Gay Alliance Ukraine” together with partners commemorated the Human Rights Day and told about the level of homophobia in the country

On December 10th, 2013 with the support of the UPO "Gay Alliance Ukraine" press conferences on the topic "Ukrainian society: discrimination or respect for human rights?" were conducted in Lviv and Odesa. Both of them were confined to the International Human Rights Day.

At the press conference were present human rights activists, psychologists, historians and representatives of public organizations. In Lviv – a lawyer Leonid Tarasenko, Programme Officer of the charity fund "Avante" Nazariy Nesevich and Deputy Director of "Avante" Olena Romanets. In Odesa – co-chair of the Coalition against discrimination in Ukraine Nazariy Boyarsky, psychologist Nina Verbitska and historian Anna Leonova. The partners in press conferences became Youth Public Movement "Partner" (Odesa) and already mentioned Charity Fund "Avante" (Lviv). The main issues discussed during the events concerned the key principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well results of monitoring of human rights violations in Ukraine.

 
Anna Leonova, Nazariy Boyarsky, Nina Verbitska (Odesa)

The first results of the all-Ukrainian research conducted by Gay Alliance Ukraine jointly with the Centre of Social Expertise of the Institute of Sociology of NAS of Ukraine were presented for the journalists. The research was devoted to determination the level of homophobia in society and perception of LGBT people by Ukrainians. 

According to the data received, the majority of respondents perceive homosexuality as something negative, assuming, that it is an "illness and the result of the psychological trauma (36 percent). Almost the same number of respondents believes that it is a "promiscuity, bad habit" (34 percent). Only fifth of the respondents agreed that homosexuality is a sexual orientation, which has an equal right to exist.

Respondents with low level of education demonstrated extreme bias against the LGBT community, whereas among people with the high level of education was found the highest percentage of those who are ready to accept homosexuals "as citizens of Ukraine". This once again showed a direct correlation between the presence of education and level of tolerance.

Conduction of press conferences became another step of implementation of the project "Promotion of basic human rights and freedoms and countering homophobia through increasing public awareness", which Gay Alliance Ukraine implements jointly with the Embassy of the Netherlands in Ukraine. 

 
Olena Romanets, Nazariy Nesevich, Leonid Tarasenko (Lviv)

Human Rights Day traditionally commemorated around the world since 1950. Two years prior, on December 10th, 1948 the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In its resolution the General Assembly called upon all states to provide annual reports on commemoration of Human Rights Day, which coordination is also being ensured by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

The main goal of the International Human Rights Day is to celebrate concepts of freedom, safety and integrity of people in relation to each other. "All people are born with inalienable rights that enable them to live a decent life, therefore, no government can grant them. However the governments of all countries are obliged to protect the rights of every citizen, – stated in a press release of the Odesa event. – Freedom, based on justice, tolerance, dignity and respect, regardless of ethnicity, religion, political preferences, social status, sexual or gender identity, allows a person to fulfill these fundamental rights. While the dictatorship denies human rights, a free society seeks to achieve their observance". 

In the light of the latest political events and pro-European choice of the majority of Ukrainians, during press conferences were discussed human rights observance issues as the main condition to build the democratic society of the European type. Besides that, participants talked about discrimination in Ukraine, its victims and causes, as well as the tolerant attitude towards "the other" as a social value, ensuring the human right to freedom and safety.

Автор: Gay Alliance Ukraine