Q: What NGOs actively work to promote and protect human rights in Ukraine today?
A: Very few. The Association of Psychiatrists of Ukraine, an independent professional organization dedicated to reforming the policies of Soviet psychiatry; the Kharkhiv Human Rights Initiative; Helsinki 90; Le Strada; the English branch of Amnesty International … that’s about it.
Dozens of small groups in oblasts and towns throughout Ukraine have all but disappeared over the past few years.
Why? Because people need to eat. Pro bono work, however necessary or noble, does not put food on the table.
Q: If we take the 10 years of Ukrainian Independence, when did the situation begin changing for the worse?
A: In 1995 after the breakdown in the balance of power between the legislative and executive branches of government.
The demise of human rights advocacy in Ukraine coincided with the introduction [in 1988] and consolidation [in 1999] of a vertical administrative structure and the reintroduction of some elements of authoritarian rule [in 2000]. The trend, in turn, has fueled public apathy toward the authorities, which today makes it even more difficult to openly challenge the abuses perpetrated by the entrepreneurial bureaucrats.
The work of human rights advocates is labor intensive. It entails conferring with victims of abuse, talking to lawyers, going to court, organizing campaigns, lobbying bureaucrats, the press, etc. – what we’re doing now, for example, in the Sloviansky Bank case.
Q: What’s happening with that case?
A: State prosecutors teamed up with State Tax Administration police last March to arrest five of the bank’s top managers and freeze the bank’s assets. Besides the 12,000 angry account holders in Zaporizhia, there was little public outcry. Even today, no one wants to know what really happened, or why.
Authorities accused [Vice President Boris] Feldman of giving a personal loan to a commercial entity without paying income tax. They also accused him of violating Article 165, Section 2, of the Ukrainian Criminal Code – misusing public office – for hiking interest rates on savings accounts belonging to bank employees.
While neither charge constitutes a criminal offense, Feldman has been in jail for the last year and four months.
Q: How often are you contacted by the U.S. Embassy or by European Union embassies concerning specific cases or trends in human rights compliance?
A: Almost never, and then only on the eve of a visit by some European delegation. If the Ukrainian authorities are organizing the visit, we aren’t called in at all.
Ukraine’s human rights record is awful and is wreaking havoc on our country’s image abroad. Of course, local officials and the courts should address abuses before the foreign community catches wind of them, but there’s little incentive to do so. Whistle blowers are seldom rewarded, often dismissed and sometimes beaten up.
Q: Why do you think that more attention is paid to the human rights records of other CIS republics than to Ukraine’s?
A: There are geopolitical factors at work and a self serving double standard. Abuses committed by authoritarian regimes looking East get more international attention. Ukraine and [President Leonid] Kuchma at least say they’re looking in a different direction. I don’t think Kuchma’s yet decided which way he’s looking.
Q: The Euro Atlantic powers appear to have moved beyond recent scandals and are focusing on parliamentary elections scheduled for next March. What do you expect from that exercise in democracy?
A: I do not think any one party or bloc will win a majority in the new legislature because election districts are larger than they were back in 1994. And winning will require candidates to secure considerable financial backing and/or administrative resources, i.e., the support of the president’s vertical power structure. By the way, we still don’t have an election law.
But if they are like previous elections, the chairman of the village or town will be held liable if a certain percentage of vote is not cast for a particular candidate. Even if an army of volunteers closely monitors the election, it’s unlikely that election officials or the courts will rule objectively on infractions and disputes.
Q: Do you think human rights issues weigh on the conscience of the current leadership?
A: I think many bureaucrats are acting in their own interests and leaving a mess for the next generation to clean up.
They’re thinking about their life on Earth – not about the miserable legacy they’re leaving behind. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of young and able Ukrainians are emigrating or traveling abroad to work, leaving power hungry politicians and pensioners to build the country’s future.
