Results of a survey on the human rights situation in Ukraine (expanded)
Despite lots of dire reports and predictions of late, it would seem that Ukrainians are by no means eager to have fundamental rights and freedoms curtailed. More detail about the results of a public opinion survey carried out by the Razumkov Centre as part of a Freedom House project (financed by the National Endowment for Democracy).
People were asked to name the rights which they saw as most important
Basic rights of the individual (the right to life, personal liberty; freedom of speech and of conscience,
of movement, personal inviolability, privacy of correspondence, etc.)
Political rights (the right to elect and be elected, the right of control over representative bodies of power, etc)
Socio-economic rights (the right to work, an adequate standard of living, social protection, the right to run their own business, etc)
Cultural rights
Environmental rights
Hard to answer
Results May 2006 Feb. 2007 Feb. 2008 March 2009
Basic rights of the individual 60.8 50.5 58.3 58.8
Political rights 3.1 3.2 3.9 4.9
Socio-economic rights 27.7 35.5 29.2 28.6
Cultural rights 0.7 0.8 0.3 0.5
Environmental rights 1.3 1.8 0.8 0.7
Hard to answer 6.6 8.2 7.5 6.4
The survey was carried out between 27 February and 5 March this year, with 2,012 respondents aged 18 and over from all over Ukraine.
On a 1-5 scale, the highest average was for the importance of the right to life, but most other fundamental rights and freedoms, including freedom of speech, conscience, freedom from torture and others, had an average score of over 4.
The results were considerably less cheering with regard to how these rights were observed in 2008. Most people felt that observance of all rights had deteriorated, with the highest figures given for deterioration in observance of social rights.
|
|
Assessment from 1 - 5 |
Hard to say |
|||||
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
average |
|
|
Right to life |
5,0 |
9,9 |
26,0 |
32,5 |
22,4 |
3,60 |
4,2 |
|
Right to liberty and personal security |
5,3 |
15,3 |
35,5 |
25,4 |
14,5 |
3,30 |
4,1 |
|
Prohibition of torture and of slavery |
7,4 |
13,9 |
28,4 |
21,3 |
14,4 |
3,25 |
14,6 |
|
Right to a fair, open and independent trial |
16,8 |
27,8 |
29,7 |
12,4 |
4,3 |
2,55 |
9,1 |
|
The right to elect and be elected, the right of control over representative bodies of power |
13,9 |
21,7 |
38,6 |
16,0 |
3,0 |
2,71 |
6,9 |
|
Presumption of innocence in criminal cases |
9,5 |
20,1 |
29,7 |
14,5 |
4,1 |
2,79 |
22,2 |
|
Right to freedom of speech, thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression |
4,2 |
15,2 |
29,0 |
27,2 |
19,2 |
3,44 |
5,2 |
|
Right to freedom of peaceful assembly, association and others |
4,7 |
12,5 |
29,6 |
26,0 |
14,9 |
3,38 |
12,4 |
|
Right to а education |
8,3 |
18,8 |
34,4 |
25,3 |
8,6 |
3,08 |
4,6 |
|
Right to defence of violated rights |
11,3 |
25,0 |
34,9 |
14,1 |
6,2 |
2,77 |
8,5 |
|
Right to private property and to run ones own business |
6,2 |
17,6 |
38,1 |
19,6 |
7,2 |
3,04 |
11,4 |
|
Right to а guarantees of observance of rights without discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other views, national or social origin, belonging to a national minority, property situation, birth, or other circumstances |
5,2 |
14,5 |
35,4 |
22,7 |
12,0 |
3,24 |
10,2 |
|
Right to work and fair remuneration |
17,6 |
31,2 |
33,7 |
11,1 |
2,6 |
2,48 |
3,7 |
|
Freedom of movement |
4,9 |
12,8 |
31,1 |
26,4 |
18,3 |
3,43 |
6,4 |
|
Right to create employees’ and employers’ organizations to defend ones economic and social interests |
6,9 |
14,7 |
33,4 |
20,2 |
7,2 |
3,07 |
17,6 |
|
Right to protect of children and teenagers |
10,3 |
20,8 |
34,5 |
18,6 |
7,4 |
2,91 |
8,2 |
|
Right to healthcare |
20,2 |
31,5 |
30,2 |
12,2 |
3,3 |
2,46 |
2,6 |
|
Right to social security |
21,3 |
30,8 |
31,0 |
10,9 |
2,9 |
2,42 |
3,0 |
|
Right to social and medical assistance |
22,5 |
32,1 |
31,2 |
9,0 |
2,5 |
2,35 |
2,8 |
From results at the Razumkov Centre website http://razumkov.org.ua/