Main menu  >>

IV. CiviL and PERSONAL rights in ukraine: THE STATUS OF LEGISLATIVE SECURITY AND EXERCISE

4.1.2. HUMAN RIGHT TO LIFE

The Commissioner for Human Rights emphasizes that an extremely dangerous process is underway in the country relative to the establishment of a drugs market with all its typical attributes – infrastructure of production, transfer and sale, a ramified system of distributors and consumers. The volumes of narcotic substances illegally brought from abroad are growing, while instead of light narcotics stronger and more dangerous drugs are smuggled into the country. Such a situation has been caused by the robust activity of transnational criminal groups engaged in drugs trafficking and by Ukraine’s proximity to Asian producers and the European drugs market. Yet another factor that contributed to the aggravation of this situation was the government’s weak control over enterprises producing psychotropic and narcotic substances. Besides, to date Ukraine has one of the most liberal anti-narcotics legislation.

The Commissioner is convinced that respective state bodies will concentrate their efforts on rectifying this situation and introducing programs to combat drug addiction.

In addressing the issue of the spread of drug addiction in Ukraine, the Commissioner for Human Rights deems it necessary to state the following:

· there is a gathering danger of drug addiction accompanied by a deliberate and purpose-minded process of legalizing the spread of narcotics among different population groups that is consciously supported and controlled both within the country and beyond its borders;

· although drug addiction is a dominating problem of cities, sociological surveys show that it has “checked in” the countryside as well. Cases of destructive addiction have been registered even in the remotest villages;

· to date there is an expanding potential base of addiction among “risk groups,” i.e. teenagers and young people for whom drugs qualify as positive values.

The Commissioner for Human Rights is convinced that drug control is, above all, a fight against the destructive impact of drugs on the health of every citizen and one of the most important challenges of the moral and biological survival of the Ukrainian nation. In the state and in society everyone should be aware that drug addiction is not less dangerous than war and horrible epidemics, since it destroys not only the body, but also the human soul.

Drug-related mortality is growing inexorably. In the past five years the mortality rate has grown more than four times, mostly among injecting drug users (almost 85% of all drug users). Drug addiction is directly linked with the problem of AIDS, since about 90% of the HIV-infected are injecting drug users.

Figure 4.3. Number of registered HIV-infected and AIDS-induced deaths in 1991-1998 (persons)

According to official data, there are over 30,000 HIV-infected people in the country (see tables 4.4 and 4.5). But specialists believe that the actual number of HIV cases ranges from 200,000 to 240,000. Experts predict that by the year 2008 the number of HIV-infected will be from 0.5 to 1.4 million and a total of 0.8-1.9 million will die of AIDS by the year 2016. Against the background of the high mortality rate caused by other pathologies and the dropping birth rate the HIV/AIDS-related deaths will have a more negative impact on the mean duration of life and will contribute to a greater reduction of the population size. The higher infection and mortality rates will cause the greatest damage to the employable part of the population, because the HIV infection affects primarily the young (75% of the infected are young people from 15 to 29 years of age). These data convincingly show the dimensions of the problem society will have to face given the lack of purpose-mined effective efforts to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS especially now when, apart from the risk groups, the population at large is being gradually drawn into the epidemic process.

Table 4.5. Number of registered HIV-infected and AIDS-induced deaths in 1987–1999 (persons)

The Law of Ukraine On Prevention of the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and Social Protection of the Population adopted on December 12, 1991 is aimed at protecting infected persons and their families. The law guarantees people affected by AIDS confidentiality, equal rights and freedoms, the right to medical services and housing, as well as the right to appeal by judicial procedure against any violations of the law and to claim moral and material damages caused by such violations.

A case in point was the widely commented on predicament of Y.Chobotar, a Ukrainian citizen residing in the village of Hannivka, Kirovograd oblast. A father of eight children, he was infected by HIV/AIDS during transfusion of donor blood in a hospital. The Commissioner for Human Rights, supporting Mr. Chobotar’s right to claim from the state damages caused to his health, initiated an inquiry into his case. From 1998 on, the Commissioner repeatedly addressed the public prosecutor’s office in Kirovograd oblast. At long last the court ruled to pay the victim a substantial amount of money as compensation. But for some unknown reasons the execution of the ruling was delayed, compelling the Commissioner to address the prosecutor’s office again with the request to take respective measures.

The practice of applying the above-mentioned law has proved that some of its provisions are highly ineffective. The articles providing for the protection of people, their life and health have little practical effect, while the articles spelling out punishment were much more explicit, lending the law a repressive nature. Even the name of the law implied not so much the guarantee of social protection for HIV/AIDS victims as protection of other persons from the victims. The new wording of the law approved by the Ukrainian Parliament on March 3, 1998 takes into account the international standards and recommendations of the WHO, of which Ukraine is a full-fledged member. (AIDS control is discussed in greater detail in the section Right to Health Protection and Medical Care, Chapter VI).

It is common knowledge what damage alcoholism can cause to human health. In 1998 and 1999 the number of alcohol-related deaths increased. In 1997 it caused the death of 6,219 persons, while in 1998 the number was 7,708 and in 1999 it was 8,297. Alcoholism has also bred quite a few offenses. Consumption of alcohol by parents presents a great health hazard to their children, many of which are born with chronic and incurable diseases such as oligophrenia (mental weakness).

Regrettably, neither the state nor the public took any practical steps to bring alcoholism under control during the past few years.

Also, the state is not taking proper measures to prevent premeditated murder and suicides and to remove the causes of untimely death and damage to human health.

The Commissioner deems it necessary to draw attention to the problem of suicides in Ukraine. In 1999 close to 14,500 suicides were committed (against the 11,000 in 1989), 85.5% of them by men. The increase in the suicide rate is explained by the currently weakening “will to live” and the resultant spread of self-denial of life. In the period from 1989 to 1999 the number of suicides increased 1.4 times (see Figure 4.5 and Table 4.6).

Figure 4.4. Dynamics of suicides in 1989–1999 (persons)

In order to gain an objective picture of the situation, the Commissioner conducted a monitoring of suicides and its attending problems, the first such effort in this country over the past ten years. As it proved, in the period from 1990 to 1999 inclusive 133,750 suicides were committed – 1,205 among children under 15 years, 26,270 among women, and 107,434 among men. The suicide rate among men is five times higher than among women. The largest number of suicides (69%) was committed by people of employable age, 30% by people over employable age, and about 1% by children less than 15 years. The Commissioner holds that the problem of suicides is to a considerable degree the result of the prevailing economic crisis, low standards of living, mounting unemployment, and psychical loneliness.

The Commissioner for Human Rights is particularly concerned about the recurring cases of juvenile suicides. Four suicide cases of children from five to nine years of age were registered in 1998 and five cases in 1999. Among children in the age group of 10-14 years there were 74 suicides in 1998 and 88 in 1999. This speaks of the indifference parents, society and the state display to the growing generation.

Table 4.6. Number of suicides in 1989–1999

The Commissioners also deems it necessary to draw attention to what are called repercussive cases of suicides that continue to be committed and are extensively commented on throughout the country. A case in point is the self-immolation of the striking miner O.Mykhalevych in front of the oblast state administration in Luhansk in December 1998. Following is the message of the note he wrote before his death: “No longer can I suffer and wait for any promises. Neither do I believe in the disbursement of back pay on December 15 (1998). It is for this reason that I decided on this action. I am sick of the insults of the mine’s management and administration. That’s not a way out, but, perhaps, the matter will be resolved more quickly because of my action. I am quite sober and in a normal condition. And I am accountable for my action.“

The unemployed widow of the miner was left with three children without any means of livelihood. In response to the fact of human rights violation in Luhansk, which resulted in this tragic case, the Commissioner for Human Rights instituted an inquiry and employees of the Commissioner’s Secretariat traveled to the city to look into the matter on site. During the tour of Luhansk oblast, the Commissioner made a visit of the miner’s widow and followed it up with definite assistance to the family. In particular, the Commissioner forwarded a petition to the Minister of Education and Science with a request to have the miner’s son granted free-of-charge tuition at the State Teachers Training University of Luhansk where he is currently studying, and a request to the state administration of Krasnodon, where the family is now residing, to allot a land plot for a vegetable garden to the widow.

Regrettably, a number of other miners and citizens immolated themselves because of socioeconomic reasons.

The Commissioners for Human Rights received appeals from citizens who, driven to abysmal despair, decided to immolate themselves in public. Immediate measures were taken to prevent such suicides in Lviv, Zaporizhia and some other oblasts.

In late 1998 the Commissioner for Human Rights received a letter from a mother of two children in Trukavets, Valentyna Kindratkevych, who wrote that she would immolate herself in protest against the lawlessness and arbitrariness of the local authorities. The Commissioner immediately established personal telephone contact with the appellant. As it proved, in 1995 the then chief engineer of House Maintenance Office No.2 in Truskavets illegally dismissed her while she was on pregnancy leave. The young woman regarded this not only as a violation of operative legislation, but also as a demonstration of discrimination and began standing up for her rights at higher instances and in courts. The local authorities took this as a challenge, seeing in her not a person who defends her legitimate rights, but a vexatious complainant. For this reason her family was denied allocation of an apartment, i.e. her right to housing was violated. For almost six years she kept knocking on the doors of officials and courts in search of justice. While her appeals were making the rounds of bureaucratic establishments, her pleas went unheeded. In the end, she decided to resort of self-immolation.

The Commissioner for Human Rights launched an arduous fight primarily for the life of the woman and for the restoration or her rights. It proved to be a long-winded battle. Unfortunately, the issue of restoring her right to work has not been resolved to this day. The protest of the Attorney General’s against the rulings of the city and oblast courts was rejected. Nonetheless, the Commissioner’s efforts made it possible to protect the woman’s right to life, her legitimate right to housing and, most important of all, she was not left to her own devices in a critical situation.

The issue of capital punishment holds a special place in the assurance of the right to life in Ukraine. For society it has gained an unwonted acuteness.

When acceding to the Council of Europe, Ukraine, in conformity with Conclusion No.190 of the Parliamentary Assembly, assumed a number of obligations, among them to sign within one year after accession and ratify within three years Protocol No.6 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which provides for the abolition of the death penalty.

The Ukrainian Constitution created the legal preconditions for the positive resolution of this issue by declaring the inalienable right of every person to life and guaranteeing that no one may be arbitrarily deprived of life.

The Commissioner for Human Rights deems it necessary to point out that throughout the past four years the Council of Europe repeatedly criticized Ukraine for protracting the abolition of the death penalty and recommended to initiate the procedure for suspending Ukraine’s right of to be represented in the Council of Europe.

Notably, the overwhelming majority of Ukrainian citizens did not support the abolition of this type of punishment under the current conditions in the country. Only 5% of the population responded positively to the abolition of the death penalty.

Therefore, taking the final decision on this issue was a far from easy matter, what with the negative public opinion that was shaped against the background of growing crime.

The number of crimes committed against the life, health, freedom and dignity of the person does not seem to be waning (see Table 4.7). During the past ten years, registered crimes increased almost twofold, including a fourfold increase of grave crimes. There has been a sharp increase in group crimes, calculated homicides, robberies and holdups. The criminals are widely resorting to firearms, torture, and insults against their victims.

Table 4.7. Number of offenses committed against the life, health, freedom and dignity of the person

According to a study conducted by the Commissioner for Human Rights for the period from 1992 to 1999, isolation wards and prisons by early 2000 held in custody 417 convicts sentenced to death for depriving the life of 1,878 people, 230 children included.

The Commissioner for Human Rights repeatedly visited the convicts on death row as well as those whose death sentences had been reduced to respective prison terms, in particular in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk. The personal contacts with this category of convicts showed a swaying attitude to the replacement of the death penalty by life imprisonment even among those who were sentenced to death.

According to the data obtained by the Commissioner for Human Rights, the number of death sentences passed in 1997 was 128, 142 in 1998, and 104 in 1999.

To achieve a positive result in resolving the issue of abolishing the death penalty under such a situation could be possible only by forging a political will and uniting the efforts of all parties concerned, primarily the President, Parliament and Cabinet of Ministers to shape public opinion, draft relevant laws and introduce necessary amendments to legislation.

The Commissioner for Human Rights took a principled stand on this issue. At a conference of the Parliament committees chairmen and representatives of factions and groups held on December 20, 1999 the Commissioner addressed the MPs and the Parliament with the following words:

“It goes without saying that I, just like everyone of you, had for a long time doubts as to the abolition of the death penalty in our state. I have been constantly visiting our prisons and isolation wards and meeting with those who were sentenced to death: to date there are 417 such convicts. Believe me: the conditions of custody in our prisons are so horrible that the convicts themselves believe the death penalty to be a better alternative.

“I would like to ask you to take into consideration that the Constitutional Court will certainly consider this matter, but it will do what Parliament is supposed to do. The Parliament should ratify Protocol 6. We would thereby show our understanding of this issue. Then, we can raise the question of meeting the rest of our obligations.”

Thus, the Commissioner proposed to consider and positively settle the question of abolishing the death penalty, that is ratify Protocol No.6 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, to demonstrate the understanding of this issue and at the same time meet Ukraine’s obligations to the Council of Europe, thereby upholding the prestige of our state.

The Constitutional Court of Ukraine played an important role in this process. In response to an appeal of 48 Members of Parliament, the Constitutional Court on December 29, 1999 recognized the death penalty as a type of punishment that is inconsistent with the Ukrainian Constitution and is unconstitutional.

Right after the ruling, the Commissioner for Human Rights was receiving letters from people sentenced to death with requests to take measures on their immediate remission since the death penalty was recognized as unconstitutional.

Right from the outset, the Commissioner for Human Rights advocated a comprehensive approach to this issue, holding that, simultaneously with the ratification of Protocol No.6 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms, the Parliament should introduce respective amendments to national legislation, in particular to the Criminal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Corrective Labor Code concerning the replacement of the death penalty by life imprisonment.

At the same time, the Commissioner believes, the abolition of the death penalty and its replacement by life imprisonment will breed acute problems that society will have to deal with in the short-term outlook.

First, since 80% of those sentenced to death are persons from 18 to 40 years of age and will have to spend the rest of their life in prison, special legislation should be passed to determine their legal status and the conditions that would protect their human dignity.

The Commissioner’s visits to the isolation wards holding such persons in custody gives reason to speak of the impossibility of the continued custody of these persons in isolation wards that cannot provide a proper level of safety and treatment.

Second, a respective European standard of custody conditions and regime can be achieved by constructing not less than two institutions for 400-500 inmates each and with a special level of safety. The design and construction would require UAH 48 million in budgetary funding. Besides, the annual expenses for the maintenance of the inmates would require an additional UAH 18 million. In the future such institutions will have to be built depending on judicial practice.

Third, medical workers servicing prisons caution that life in a solitary cell may cause extensive psychological disorders. Life imprisonment still needs to be thoroughly studied and respective medical services have to be established. Besides, work with such inmates requires special guards with experience of not less than three years.

What still remains problematic is the far from unanimous public opinion on the abolition of the death penalty, because the crime rate continues to grow, first-degree murders increase in number, and it is quite obvious that the state is incapable of ensuring the inalienable right to human life. Such an attitude can be reversed by combining the efforts of all branches of power and of society as a whole.

The Commissioner for Human Rights points out that Ukraine has expended negligibly insignificant effort to meet is constitutional duty of protecting human life and health. Especially dangerous is the negligence of bodies of state authority in pursuing an effective demographic policy, creating healthy conditions for the life and work of people, and taking drastic measures to control diseases that have gained epidemic proportions.

The Commissioner for Human Rights considers the protection of the right to life as one of the high-priority areas of activity. To this end the Commissioner will continue conducting permanent monitoring on how the rights of citizens to a decent life and health are being ensured in the country.

Translated by Anatole Bilenko

<<  Back

Home ^^