Since the first days of its promulgation in November, this document has become a rarity.

This is possibly quite natural. But today it is already clear that it is being hushed up, too. This fact characterizes the situation in Ukraine’s society as clearly as the content of the report itself. Presented below are some of its materials which seem to be most important. Europeanness Coefficient: 32/173 Ukraine has ratified: — the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Optional Protocol to it; — the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; — the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; — the 1979 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; — the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child; — the 1984 UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the corresponding 1987 European Convention.

On acceding to the 1950 Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Ukraine committed itself to implement the Convention’s provisions in its domestic legislation and to maintain the mechanisms of international control. So, only some years after Ukraine had gained independence, it became fully integrated in the international system of protection of human rights and freedoms. At the same time, proceeding from the high international standards of human rights and freedoms, Ukraine should have expanded the list of human rights and freedoms which are guaranteed by the state; it should have acceded a number of universal and European human rights conventions and should have removed reservations on the conventions ratified by it. From the total number of human rights conventions, codes and protocols of the Council of Europe (173), Ukraine has acceded to 32 and has signed another 10 (inter alia, out of the group of 12 human rights conventions, to 9; out of the group of 5 conventions against cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, to 2; out of the group of 5 conventions of the European Social Charter, to none; out of the group of 15 conventions on social issues, to none; out of the group of 18 conventions on health protection, to none; out of the group of 14 conventions on the issues of education, culture and sport, to 1; out of the group of 22 conventions on criminal law, to 9; out of the group of 8 conventions on common law, to 2; and out of two conventions on bioethics, to none). All these hinder the process of incorporating European human rights standards in Ukraine’s national legislation.

The above and other human rights conventions, which Ukraine have failed to ratify, largely are even poorly known by the corresponding bodies of state power primarily responsible for their ratification. Problems in implementing already ratified conventions and developing the corresponding spheres of the national legislation have become permanent. To take an example, the Law of Ukraine on the ratification of the backbone 1950 Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms contains a number of reservations which are based on the superiority of the national legislation and contravene the tenor of the Convention and Ukraine’s obligation pledged to the Council of Europe. Still effective are numerous ministerial and departmental normative regulatory acts thwarting human rights standards, among which is the institution of propyska

(domicile registration). In the opinion of Nina Karpacheva, the Supreme Rada Human Rights Ombudsperson, «in order to implement the whole set of human rights and freedoms in Ukraine, it is expedient to draft a national program of realization by the State of its international law commitments and to conform its legislation to international human rights standards. It is necessary to involve representatives of all branches of power, as well as scholars and public organizations, in its drafting.»