Human rights activists demand to pass Labour Code’s provision on LGBT non-discrimination

The human rights activists of the Coalition for Combating Discrimination in Ukraine are concerned about the disregard of the provision on LGBT non-discrimination within the “visa-free package.”

The activists are outraged by the homophobic statements of some MPs.

“MP Pavlo Unhurian demonstrated his vision of the concept of discrimination against the LGBT community [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people], assuring everybody that it does not exist and that the proposed amendment will create just a “special status” for LGBT people in Ukraine. Therefore the proposal of the Parliamentary Committee on European Integration, the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry Justice to consider the amendment on prohibition of discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity got the support of 117 MPs only and hence was voted down,” reads the statement of the human rights defenders.

The Coalition for Combating Discrimination expressed its protest against the refusal of the MPs to include the prohibition of discrimination into the Labour Code of Ukraine.

“The freedom from discrimination must be guaranteed to all the people regardless of their belonging to any minority. The rights of vulnerable groups including the LGBT community are continually violated in Ukraine, but the state has never shown the willingness to solve these problems,” the human rights activists stressed.

They recalled that when the anti-discrimination law had been adopted in 2012, sexual orientation and gender identity were not included in the list of grounds on which discrimination in Ukraine should be prohibited in all areas of public life.

“We demand that the MPs find legal opportunities and, primarily, political will and consciousness to prohibit discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity in the new Labour Code. This step would demonstrate the willingness of Ukraine to follow the path of human rights and not that of the medieval discriminatory attitudes, and the need for tolerance towards any minority to the Ukrainian society,” says the statement of the Coalition for Combating Discrimination in Ukraine.

As a reminder, adoption of the provision on LGBT non-discrimination in employment relations is one of the conditions for granting visa-free regime to Ukraine. This condition is also provided for in the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.

On Thursday, the Ukrainian lawmakers succeeded in passing only two bills out of 13 necessary for the visa-free regime.