Crimes with homo/transphobic motives remain invisible to the state

Yesterday, the Verkhovna Rada adopted Bill 11456 “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine ‘On Free Legal Aid’ Regarding Expanding the List of Persons Entitled to Free Secondary Legal Aid” which supplements the list of subjects entitled to free secondary legal aid by persons who have suffered from criminal offenses based on hatred on grounds of race, skin color, political, religious, and other beliefs, gender, disability, ethnic and social origin, property status, place of residence, language. However, the list of protected characteristics does not include sexual orientation and gender identity despite the fact that both independent observers and the National Police report every year on the presence and prevalence of such crimes in Ukraine — accordingly, their victims should have the same right to legal aid as victims of hate crimes on other grounds.

The initiator of this bill is the Cabinet of Ministers, and it is prepared to implement the recommendations of the European Commission on the progress of Ukraine within the framework of the 2023 European Union Enlargement Package, namely, the introduction and implementation of the Istanbul Convention’s provisions. However, both the Convention and the European Commission’s recommendations clearly indicate that sexual orientation and gender identity must be included in the list of characteristics protected from discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes. Thus, despite the cheerful reports of legislators and government officials about the implementation of EU recommendations, we can state that in this case they have not been implemented — and do not even doubt that the European partners of Ukraine have already been informed about this and will not turn a blind eye to the real state of affairs.

This unpleasant situation for our authorities, however, can be corrected by amending this law — for instance, when considering Bill 5488. Without the adoption of this or a similar bill, which directly includes sexual orientation and gender identity in the list of protected characteristics in criminal, anti-discrimination and administrative legislation, our state anyway will not be able to close the relevant chapter in its negotiations with the European Union and become its member. In fact, the Cabinet of Ministers understands this by including the adoption of the corresponding law and the introduction of the registration of crimes committed under motives of homo/transphobia in the draft Roadmap for joining the EU.

The case of Georgia (country) clearly demonstrates how modern Europe reacts to attempts to join it while reverently preserving the homo- and transphobic values of the Russian World.