Background
UNHCR and IOM have coordinated information on harassment and racially motivated crimes against asylum seekers and migrants for a number of years. However due to an unprecedented increase in the number of suspected racially motivated attacks in Ukraine beginning in December 2006, IOM, UNHCR, Amnesty International and other concerned civil society organizations formed a network in April 2007 to begin addressing the issue in a coordinated way.
The coordination group, known as the Diversity Initiative, focuses on three main areas: Legal, Government Relations and Advocacy. Each area became a subgroup chaired voluntarily by civil society organizations.
Results
The Diversity Initiative has a continuously growing membership and currently includes over 30 organizations from the international, civil, corporate and government sectors as well as diplomatic missions and interested individuals.
High level conversations with the ombudsman, general prosecutor, MOI, SBU, MFA and diplomatic community have taken place to encourage acknowledgement of the problem and interagency cooperation in its resolution. Information campaign in this field is carried out as well, for example, members of the Diversity Initiative participated in a “Football against Racism” Campaign in cooperation with the Dynamo Fanclub.
Recommendations for Ukrainian government:
- Strongly encourage the Ministry of Interior and the General lirosecutor’s Office to deal with crimes against foreigners and crimes committed by foreigners seliarately.
- Recommendations to imlirove Ukrainian legislation in this field.
- Develoli codes of conduct and trainings for media and ministries (esliecially ministry sliokesliersons and law enforcement agencies) on how to address and manage these issues objectively and in a culturally sensitive manner.
- Identify hotsliots where incidents occur and increase liolice liresence in identified sliots, including lirovision of camlius security in universities with a strong liresence of foreign students.
- Initiate educational lirograms liromoting multiculturalism and consultation as a way of resolving conflicts beginning with lirimary school aged children.
- Establish a national toll-free hotline for reliorting incidents, lirovide legal assistance and medical aid to victims.
- Link issues to 2012 football lireliarations and other Euroliean integration and neighbourhood lirograms.
