Date of entry into
force:
October 4, 2012
(Abstract)
The Law determines the organizational and legal principles for preventing
and counteracting discrimination in order to ensure equal opportunities to
exercise human and civil rights and freedoms.
Article 1 of the Law provides definitions of terms used in it. For example,
discrimination is a decision, action or inaction that aims to create
restrictions or privileges regarding a person and/or group of people based on
their race, skin color, political, religious and other beliefs, gender, age,
disability, ethnicity or social standing, family or financial status, place of
residence, language or other factors (hereinafter referred to as “specific
factors”), if they make it impossible to recognize and equally exercise human
and civil rights and freedoms.
According to Article 2 of the Law, the legislation of Ukraine is founded on
the principle of non-discrimination, which provides for the following,
regardless of specific factors:
·
ensuring the equality of rights and freedoms of
persons and/or groups of people;
·
ensuring the equality of persons and/or groups of
people before the law;
·
respect to the dignity of each person;
·
ensuring equal opportunities for persons and/or groups
of people.
According to Article 5 of the Law, there are following forms of
discrimination:
·
direct discrimination (decisions, actions or inaction
that lead to a situation where a person and/or group of people receives less
favorable treatment than other persons in the same situation, based on specific
factors);
·
indirect discrimination (decisions, actions or
inaction, legal norms or evaluation criteria, conditions or practices that are
formally equal, but in the course of their exercise or implementation may
create restriction or privileges towards a person and/or a group of people
based on specific factors; except for cases when such actions or inaction,
legal norms or evaluation criteria are justified by the purpose of ensuring
equal opportunities for separate persons or groups of people to exercise equal
rights and freedoms granted to them by the Constitution and the Laws of
Ukraine);
·
enticing discrimination (orders, instructions or calls
to discrimination against a person and/or group of people based on specific
factors);
·
repression (behavior undesirable for a person and/or
group of people, the purpose or consequence of which is belittling their
dignity based on specific factors, or creating a tense, hostile, offensive or
contemptuous atmosphere for such person or group of people).
According to the Constitution of Ukraine, generally accepted principles and
norms of international law and international agreements of Ukraine, all
persons, regardless of their specific factors, have equal rights and freedoms,
and equal opportunity to exercise them (Article 6 of the Law). Any forms of
discrimination against persons and/or groups of people based on specific
factors, on behalf of state authorities, bodies of power of the Autonomous
Republic of Crimea, bodies of local self-government, their officials, or legal
entities or natural persons are forbidden. Actions do not constitute
discrimination if they do not restrict the rights and freedoms of other
persons, do not create obstacles for their exercise, and do not provide
unfounded advantages to persons and/or groups of people based on specific
factors, towards whom positive actions are taken, such as:
·
special protection on behalf of the state for separate
categories of people requiring such protection;
·
measures aimed at preserving the identity of separate
groups of people, if such measures are necessary;
·
providing reliefs or compensations to separate
categories of people in cases provided for by the law;
·
establishing state social guarantees for separate
categories of people;
·
specific requirements to exercise certain human
rights, as provided for by the law.
The main directions of state policy to prevent and counteract
discrimination are determined in Article 7 of the Law.
Drafts of normative legal acts are prepared with obligatory consideration of
the non-discrimination principle. In order to discover norms with signs of
discrimination in drafts of normative legal acts, drafts of normative legal
acts are subjected to anti-discrimination expert analysis. The result of
anti-discrimination expert analysis of normative legal acts must be reviewed
during the making of the decision to issue (adopt) the respective normative
legal act. Drafts of Laws of Ukraine, acts of the President of Ukraine, and
other normative legal acts prepared by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine,
central and local executive authorities, are subject to mandatory
anti-discrimination expert analysis (Article 8 of the Law).
According to Article 9 of the Law, entities vested with authority to
prevent and counteract discrimination are:
·
the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine;
·
the Authorized Human Rights Representative of the
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine;
·
the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine;
·
other state authorities, the bodies of power of the
Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and bodies of local self-government;
·
community organizations, natural persons and legal
entities.
The scope of authority of the above entities for preventing and
counteracting discrimination is determined by Articles 10-13 of the Law.
Chapter III of the Law establishes liability for violation of legislation
on preventing and counteracting discrimination.
The Law also introduces appropriate amendments to the Code of
Administrative Proceedings of Ukraine, the Laws of Ukraine “On Collective
Agreements”, “On the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights” and
“On Court Fee”.
No comments:
Post a Comment