The state of human rights observance in Ukraine in 2008

The observance of all types of rights in 2008 only deteriorated. This is evidenced both by responses to the direct question about how the situation regarding the observance of rights has changed, and by direct assessments of rights observance. When assessing changes in the situation over the year regarding each type of right, the number of respondents who indicated that the situation had worsened significantly outweighed the number of those who answered that the situation had improved.

The majority of citizens consider basic human rights to be the most important. However, over a quarter of those surveyed named social and economic rights as the most important. Such a situation may indicate an unsatisfactory state of observance of the latter.

At the same time, respondents highly rate the importance of observing all rights: all ratings exceeded 4 points on a 5-point scale. Citizens consider the right to life to be the most important.

The observance of human rights in Ukraine is not highly rated by those surveyed. The observance of environmental and socio-economic rights is rated lowest, and basic rights highest.

Average scores on a 5-point scale for each type of right turned out to be lower than last year.

Among individual rights, as in previous years, citizens rate the observance of social rights lowest (in particular, the right to work and fair remuneration, to healthcare, to social security, to social and medical assistance) and rights related to the administration of justice (the right to a fair, open, and independent trial, to protection of violated rights, presumption of innocence in criminal law). The average rating for the observance of these rights was less than 3 points on a 5-point scale. In addition, citizens rated the observance of the right to freely elect and be elected to representative government bodies, to exercise control over government actions, as well as the right to the protection of children and adolescents, at less than 3 points.

The integral assessment of rights observance given by citizens indicates that these rights are observed overall at 59.2%. If this indicator is presented as a rating on a 5-point scale, the result is 2.96 points. Last year, this rating was 3.17 points.

Among the sources of significant human rights violations in Ukraine, citizens most often name the President and People’s Deputies. Also, more than a third of those surveyed named criminal structures, the Prime Minister, the Verkhovna Rada, the Government, and the police. The Armed Forces are named least often. Compared to previous years, the number of citizens who name central government bodies or their representatives as a source of significant violations has increased significantly. Thus, compared to last year, the number of those who consider the President of Ukraine a source of significant human rights violations has grown from 29% to 54.5%, the Prime Minister of Ukraine — from 16% to 37.3%, the Government — from 22.7% to 36%, the Verkhovna Rada — from 28.9% to 37%, and People’s Deputies — from 44.9% to 49.2%. At the same time, the number of those who consider local authorities (from 40.4% to 28.2%), the police (from 45.4% to 35%), and criminal structures (from 52.4% to 41%) as a source of significant human rights violations has decreased. When choosing only one main source of human rights violations, citizens also most often named the President of Ukraine (28.7%).

Citizens expect help in protecting their rights primarily from the court, lawyers, the President of Ukraine, and the police. However, citizens do not rate the activities of these structures in the sphere of ensuring human rights highly. General ratings of the human rights activities of all structures have noticeably decreased compared to last year and are below 3 points on a 5-point scale, with the exception of international organisations, whose activities respondents rated at 3.05 points (which is, nevertheless, lower than last year).

Citizens rate the effectiveness of various methods of protecting their rights quite low. Appeals to government bodies and the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights were named the least effective. Appeals to the European Court of Human Rights were named the most effective. However, ratings of effectiveness compared to last year have decreased regarding all the mentioned institutions.

The vast majority of those surveyed believe that it is difficult for an ordinary citizen to obtain help from professional lawyers, non-governmental human rights organisations, or the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights when appealing to the court. Moreover, for all points compared to last year, the number of ‘difficult’ and ‘very difficult’ responses has increased significantly.

Half of the citizens rate their level of awareness about their rights and the possibilities for their protection as low. A very insignificant share of those surveyed rated this level as high, and this share has practically not changed since 2007. Almost a third of citizens do not know what needs to be done to appeal to the court to protect their rights. More than half of those surveyed know about this only approximately.

Respondents positively rate the assistance in raising awareness about rights from the media and educational institutions. Assistance from non-governmental organisations and the ombudsman is rated quite sceptically.

Among the problems that citizens expect in case they need to appeal to the court, financial problems are most often named: the excessively high cost of lawyer services and a lack of funds for the consideration of the case. Also, a problem such as the corruption of the judicial system is very often named.

A third of those surveyed answered that their rights had been violated during 2008. The number of those who believe that their rights were violated during the year has grown to 34.7% from 21.7%, which was recorded last year. At the same time, almost two-thirds of citizens whose rights were violated did not take any measures to protect their rights.

Among the measures that citizens took to protect their rights, appeals to the court, a lawyer, the prosecutor’s office, and government bodies were most often named.

The vast majority of Ukrainians are convinced that Ukraine is in a state of political (90.9%) and economic (95.4%) crisis. The vast majority of citizens (about two-thirds) do not expect an improvement in the political and economic situation within the next year.

Under these conditions, more than half of the respondents believe that central government bodies (President, Prime Minister, Government, Verkhovna Rada, National Bank) contribute to the violation of citizens’ political rights. Regarding local authorities, about a third of those surveyed hold this opinion, while 10-13% hold the opposite.

Even greater is the citizens’ confidence that central government bodies contribute to the violation of citizens’ socio-economic rights. The rating of the National Bank stands out particularly — almost three-quarters of those surveyed believe that this institution violates citizens’ socio-economic rights.

In the case of a significant violation of socio-economic rights, over 20% of those surveyed are ready to appeal to the court, not agree to pay for services the free nature of which is guaranteed by the Constitution, and about 20% are ready to take part in mass street protests.


In order to assess the state of human rights observance in Ukraine, a nationwide sociological survey was conducted by the sociological service of the Razumkov Centre. The survey was conducted within the framework of the Freedom House Ukraine project ‘ABC of Human Rights in Ukraine’ with funding from the National Endowment for Democracy.

The survey was conducted from 27 February to 5 March 2009. 2012 respondents aged 18 and over were surveyed in all regions of Ukraine. The theoretical sampling error is 2.3%. For comparison, the report presents the results of nationwide surveys conducted in 2006, 2007, and 2008. The surveys were conducted from 11 to 19 May 2006 (2000 respondents aged 18 and over were surveyed in all regions of Ukraine), from 2 to 9 February 2007 (2011 respondents aged 18 and over were surveyed in all regions of Ukraine), and from 31 January to 5 February 2008 (2017 respondents aged 18 and over were surveyed in all regions of Ukraine). The theoretical sampling error is 2.3%. Data in all tables are presented as a percentage of the total number of those surveyed, unless otherwise indicated.