Human rights in Ukraine and the EU response, including relevant activities of the European Parliament

Please note: Each EPRS Study is assigned a DOI (digital object identifier), which is a safe and long term way of ensuring a hyperlink to the full text of this report. However, when ESO creates this record, on occasion the DOI still has not been activated by the EU Bookshop. If you find the source url hyperlink does not work please use the alternative location hyperlink listed as a related url.This study provided an overview of how the European Union and the European Parliament (EP) contribute to the promotion and protection of human rights in Ukraine. The analysis adopted an institutional approach, separately addressing the role of the various EP bodies involved, such as the plenary itself and the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI).

The actions of the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee (PAC), a parliamentary body created by the Association Agreement, as well as those of the European Parliament’s Delegation to the PAC are included in this analysis.

The territories controlled by the Ukrainian government and those that were temporarily occupied, namely Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine, were addressed separately in the study.

In terms of thematic focus, the EP’s activities aimed at human rights promotion have been dominated by the issue of the Crimean Tatars, the Ukrainian political prisoners illegally held in Russia, and the human rights situation in eastern Ukraine.

The most significant conclusion was that the more entrenched the violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity became, the wider the spectrum of human rights issues extended, in protection of which the EP was able to step to the fore and take action.

A summary of the contents of relevant EP actions can be found in the Annex to the study, together with a graphical visualisation of key data.

• Primary Source

Human Rights Watch: Ukraine http://www.europeansources.info/record/ukraine/

European Parliament: European Parliamentary Research Service: Study, January 2018: Human rights in Ukraine and the EU response, including relevant activities of the European Parliament http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/603834/EXPO_STU(2018)603834_EN.pdf

---