Ukraine needs
unification of laws on hate crimes. Volodymyr Lytvyn, Chairman of the Verkhovna
Rada of Ukraine, made the foregoing statement at the Council of Regions under
the chairmanship of President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych on Friday.
"The atmosphere of hatred breeds hate crimes," he stated. "The very term ‘hate crimes´ or ‘bias-motivated crimes´ exist in a great number of democratic states." V.Lytvyn cited the information of the United States Ministry of Justice, whereby hate crimes instigate social conflicts, riots and upheaval. He also stated that hate crimes worsen the business climate. The Head of the Parliament stressed that judicial qualification of the crimes against human beings committed under the influence of hatred towards the persons of other race, nationality, religion, ethnic backgrounds, political affiliations, and gender, and against the persons with disabilities aggravates the guilt and strengthens the punishment.
V.Lytvyn supposes that Ukraine needs unification of laws on hate crimes. Separate clauses of applicable laws and provisions of the Constitution and the Criminal Code of Ukraine are largely oriented towards protection or condemnation of a particular ideology, not protection of human rights. "The same concerns seven bills on prevention of radicalism, which are being worked out in the Verkhovna Rada committees. Neither of the bills is devoid of political biases and preferences," the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada stressed.
V.Lytvyn noticed that "in view of the actual start of the parliamentary election campaign, the Verkhovna Rada is being made to serve the slogans and mottos of particular political forces." He regrets that the Parliament yields to such tendencies, passing corresponding resolutions without considering their consequences.
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine singled out some problems with the application of anti-radicalism laws. He drew attention to the fact that Clause 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which regulates violation of equal rights on the basis of racial, national, religious background or other characteristics has been applied in Ukraine only five times for far.
As a comparison, V.Lytvyn gave an overview of statistical data on such crimes in the United States and Sweden in 2009: 6,604 hate crimes were registered in the United States last year, while 5,800 police reports on the bias-motivated crimes have been drawn up in Sweden. "It is logical that this type of crime becomes less frequent in these countries, while the situation with human rights is controlled by the law-enforcement agencies," he stated.
Along these lines, V.Lytvyn suggested setting up a central state register of hate crimes. He informed that the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Security Service of Ukraine took the first steps towards it.
He believes that this register should be made public, "so that civil society institutes and general public could express their warnings and views during the political campaigns."
V.Lytvyn informed that the Government of the Russian Federation publishes the lists of organizations and individuals suspect for extremism on the basis of a court ruling. Moreover, the Ministry of Justice of Russia publishes the federal register of materials of extremist character online in compliance with the Law "On Extremism Counteraction."
"It is only natural that in its recent report, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance drew attention of Ukraine to the importance of this issue," the Head of the Parliament stressed.
"Hostile words instigate hostilities," V.Lytvyn stated. "It is a moral rather than a legal problem. As a Head of the Parliament, every day I have to be at the crossroads of the war of words, i the heart of fights of hostile phrases, accusations or even acts." The Head of the Parliament admitted, "Our citizens watch this political tumult and become agitated, nervous and frustrated."
V.Lytvyn stressed, "Disturbing growth of political incorrectness in our social life is no longer a cause of politicians and media." Political incorrectness breeds information terror against the people and corrupts voters´ confidence in the authorities. "The language of hatred and hostility touches people´s values, hurts their memory, history, religion, national identity, and mother tongue. The language of hostility gradually replaces both Ukrainian and Russian languages. If we continue moving in this direction, we will have the only language left the language of hostility," the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine stressed.
V.Lytvyn believes that local authorities play a key role in the solution of this problem. "They should demonstrate tolerance and focus on the factors which unite, not divide," he stated.
The Head of the Parliament stated that analysis of the local authorities´ resolutions proved the following: the lower the level of preparation for solving the issues of the territorial communities is, the more political resolutions are there. "They adopt political declarations, instead of organizing proper community life," he stated.
Summing up, V.Lytvyn called for adopting legislative acts to tackle the threatening growth of radicalism, extremism and intolerance in the Ukrainian society. "We will consult the experts and analyze the actions to be taken," he stated. "There should be a holistic approach towards preventing the said negative phenomena."
In this context, V.Lytvyn supported the President´s initiative to draft a joint declaration on reconciliation, mutual understanding and cooperation on the eve of the 20th anniversary of independence of Ukraine.