According to OPORA’s Chair of the Board, Olha Aivazovska, three rights that call for major protection in Ukraine today are the right to life, the right to education, and the right to choose. She shared it during a discussion at the International Human Rights Conference “Human Rights in Dark Times” commemorating the 74th anniversary of adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“If we compare the situation today to what was happening in April or May, I think the world has undergone evolution through the revolutionary path. The fact that the decision was approved in berlin to recognize the 1932/33 Holodomor as genocide was not obvious even several weeks before the vote. Such decisions shall help us highlight the systemic nature of the problem.
The authoritarian regime did not merely occupied Ukraine’s territory but committed the full-scale invasion against a democratic system of governance. When we talk about the tribunal today, the decision has a long history behind. I hope we will not have to wait for a long time, for many more years to come, but that it will be happening soon. And the reason for this is that either we do it today or it will hardly ever be possible again.
We could have long talks about human rights but values and rights are not a subject for discussion, it is a subject for the fight. Therefore, when we talk about Ukrainian reality, the Ukrainian state and Ukrainian society have clearly shown their capacity to fight. It helps to advocate for any initiatives around Ukraine and to build a solidary system of responsibility, even with those institutions that we have never hoped for. Because, for instance, we would like to receive many more things from the European Union, we would want much more but the EU has done much more that we had hoped before,” shared Aivazovska.
According to her, we have to explain to the world why the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is about the “human rights” rather than about the “universal.” The rights that require major protection in Ukraine today are the right to life, the right to education, and the right to choose.
“The right to life will not be protected unless the system of responsibility becomes efficient. While in 2014 the world swallowed the act of aggression that started back then with the annexation of Crimea, I doubt that we should expect any diplomatic attitude around the topic of life and death. Because between life and death, there is a trap and a void. If we accept the compromise between these two statuses, we certainly provoke the trap for Ukraine’s future, and the void in terms of prospects of international law or institutions that had to effectively protect it.
Heroes do die, and they die every day. Let us not console in the fact that we shall always keep the heroes in our memory. They sacrifice their lives to protect the people of Ukraine in the frontlines or in the currently occupied territories from the genocide, from war crimes, from crimes against humanity. The more leverage the safety and security system has the greater the likelihood that fewer heroes lose their lives for the sake of their nation. On the local level, the leverage certainly includes the weapon, on the international level – it is the law.
The second right is the right to education. Our children nourish our hopes. People who have children today or plan to have children in the near future understand what I mean. The perished soldiers will have their eternal life in their children. The children are suffering the trauma but not only. They are also affected much more seriously — they have been deprived of access to education. It is a fundamental right, also protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They have been deprived of the comfort of their homes, of their toys, of their pillow smelling of childhood. Can you imagine that every child staying today in Ukraine or beyond will continue to lose their history, such as a basic access to a teacher who can teach in Ukrainian the Ukrainian language. It is the war for identity. The war that russia wages in order to depopulate Ukraine, to drain it of blood and to exterminate the future generations to prevent them from recovery and revival with Ukraine as such. I am deeply convinced that our children are going to be wiser than us. They will certainly be more patriotic. But today, they must win the battle, not as the fight for survival, but the fight for competition and development. If today, even in these dark times, each and every Ukrainian child does not have education and access to it, whether beyond or in Ukraine, Ukraine will lose, both mid-term and long-term. That is why I am certain that that what the government can do today is not only to reinforce the army, not only to build the justice system for the future, but also to prioritize access to education to make these generations more competitive and to ensure the short-term recovery of the country.
The third right I would like to mention (I am sure you can understand its value) – it is the choice. We are not them. Ukrainian society has been training our muscle for democratic development for a long time. Ukraine is by far the only state that had the national referendum to approve the Act on Sovereignty and Independence. The entire Ukrainian nation made the decision. After the Second World War, when the Universal Declaration was adopted, it meant the adherence to the principles of respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity. After the collapse of the Soviet Union that has never been held accountable for the crimes they committed within the “Prison of Nations,” and primarily against Ukrainians as ethnicity or the possible future political group. Unfortunately, it has never been punished. Because winners are not in for punishment. It looks like if the tribunal is not established, we have no prospects for development or for the termination of this aggression. Having a choice is critical. Ukrainian people chose freedom, they elected Presidents; Ukrainian people opted for the free choice. Let me reiterate that no Myadan revolution, none of the full-course protests in this country have ever been around money. They all were about rights and freedoms.
Therefore, the right to life, the right to education, and the right to choose are fundamental, and we shall build our dialogue around them in these dark times,” highlighted she.
The speaker also shared about her hopes.
“The first hope is participatory democracy. Our country is different from the russian federation in that our citizens have the will to participate in the governance, and they assume responsibility, even if in the dark times. When there is shortage of resources, the shortage of weapons, the shortage of manpower. Citizens are ready to delegate.
Justice system. If the Special Tribunal for the Act of Aggression is not established, russia will not bear the responsibility. This decision contains hope of the Ukrainian society because the inescapable nature of accountability is a basic principle in human rights protection.
The third hope is, obviously, about security. Security during the war might seem odd. But we have been fighting for many years now, and our territory has certain preconditions implying that exercising the national security effort will continue to be a challenge for a long time.
I truly hope that we will not only be limited to talking about those rights and hopes but also will be exercising them in practice. Civil society will be fighting for them at all weathers. However, it is critical to have the cooperation from the government and society in this matter. This will bring us to achieve the objective,” summarized Aivazovska.