COMBATING RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA

The committee carried out several actions before the week of combating racism. Among them were joint meetings with migrants and refugees living in the Chernihiv region. Unfortunately, taking into account the results of these meetings and the interim results of human rights monitoring in the Chernihiv region,


The ChGKZHR considers it necessary to declare the increase in the number of manifestations of racism, xenophobia and intolerance


in recent months. In particular, the committee began to constantly record open manifestations of physical violence against foreigners, which was not the case before.

Thus, a week ago, the committee was contacted by an asylum seeker from Sri Lanka, who temporarily lives in the village of Krasne, Chernihiv district, and whom the ChGKZPL is assisting in the procedure for voluntary return to his homeland under the program of the International Organization for Migration. He reported that he had recently been severely beaten and robbed in Kyiv by unknown young men, but did not contact law enforcement agencies due to fear for his life. The Sri Lankan also complained that recently, when coming to Chernihiv, he constantly feels persecuted because of his foreign appearance.

The Ukrainian Commission for Human Rights is also particularly concerned about the emergence of another phenomenon that is shameful for our multinational state – torchlight processions by radical nationalists demanding the forced eviction and use of physical force on migrants, calling them “trash from third world countries”. It is very unfortunate that during such a procession on March 6, 2008, instead of counteracting these obvious manifestations of xenophobia and intolerance, the authorities of the city of Chernihiv calmly communicated with the nationalists, saying that “..those who live in Ukraine and care about Ukraine are the real Ukrainians”. All this may look like a sign of support for such measures in the eyes of the city residents.

The Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights appeals to representatives of state authorities and local self-government bodies of the Chernihiv region, in particular to law enforcement agencies, with a demand

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to increase efforts to combat racism, intolerance and xenophobia in the region;

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to separate freedom of expression from the open promotion of racism, intolerance and xenophobia in their approaches to public actions of public and political movements, taking appropriate measures provided for by the legislation of Ukraine;

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to protect refugees and asylum seekers living in the region from all criminal acts.

More information on combating racism and protecting the rights of refugees and migrants can be found on the specialized website of the Ukrainian Human Rights Commission: , which operates with the support of the Endowment for Democracy of the US Embassy in Ukraine.