UN Resident Coordinator in Ukraine and Ombudsperson agreed on cooperation on a number of strategic areas

The Letter of Intent, signed by UN in Ukraine and Ombudsperson will bring ongoing cooperation of both offices to a new strategic level.

The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine Osnat Lubrani and Liudmyla Denisova, the Ombudsperson for Ukraine met to discuss strategic priorities of work in 2021. During the discussion the parties found a wide range of issues for joint cooperation, considering that human rights is the basis for work of all UN organizations in Ukraine.  Ms. Denisova stressed that her views on cooperation fully coincide with the UN’s international priorities and most of them are reflected in the strategic areas of activity of Ombudsperson’s office for the ongoing year, as well as in the plan of measures for their implementation.

One of the priority areas of cooperation between UN and Ombudsperson’s Office Ms. Denisova named coordination of advocacy for the transfer of persons, that were imprisoned before the start of armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and the transfer of 220 criminal cases against 230 persons and proceedings remaining in courts and law enforcement agencies in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. The separate working meeting with the UN will be scheduled to discuss this issue in details.

Achievement of SGDs, especially SDG#10 – Reduced Inequalities and SDG#8 – Decent Work is on the top of the agenda in Ombudsperson’s team, Ms. Denisova noted. Ms. Lubrani, the UN Resident Coordinator, express her willingness to further work on a joint communication and advocacy campaigns on SDGs with the office of the Ombudsperson.

Ms. Lubrani and Ms. Denisova also highlighted a need to address a number of Roma issues in Ukraine and agreed to conduct a joint visits to Roma settlements and communities throughout Ukraine.  In this regard, the special report "The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Roma Community in Ukraine", recently presented by Ms. Denisova, will further involve experts from UN agencies in Ukraine to work on the implementation of the recommendations provided in the report.

Ms. Osnat Lubrani noted that report on Socio-Economic Impact of COVID-19, recently presented by UN Office in Ukraine, revealed that vulnerable groups in Ukraine disproportionally suffered from the pandemic, so she emphasized that, first of all, joint efforts of cooperation with the Ombudsperson is going to be focused on helping these priority groups. Among them UN RC listed women that suffered from gender-based violence that significantly increased during pandemic, children, single mothers, people with disability, people living with HIV and chronical diseases, rural women, health workers, asylum seekers, refugees and those who lost their jobs due to pandemic or those are in danger of loosing it.

Ms. Lubrani also added that UN Office has a full capacity to cooperate with Ms Denisova on countering of hate speech which remains a highly acute problem in Ukraine.  

Ms. Denisova praised the good results of cooperation with UN Agencies in Ukraine, in particular, she commended joint work with UNDP on COVID-19 report that will be published in early March. Also, she expressed hope that the Memorandum with ILO that was signed at the end of 2020 will strengthen the capacities of the Ombudsperson’s office for advocating of labor rights in Ukraine. Further cooperation of Ombudsperson with ILO will include such important areas as approving the roadmap for  payment of wage arrears to Ukrainian citizens and developing a new version of the Labor Code in Ukraine

At the end, Ms. Denisova stressed the need to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, improve the institutional capacity of the national preventive mechanism and raise awareness of Ukrainian society about human and civil rights and freedoms.

In 2021 UN in Ukraine together with the Ombudsperson will also conduct a joint study on the integration of migrants in the country and present a special report on the rights of migrants in Ukraine.