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June 20 – World Refugee Day
Despite the considerable improvement of the humanitarian situation by many states, the problem of refugees remains one of the most burning both on religious and global scales.
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Oleksandr Feldman: No ‘tradition’ can justify anti-Semitism in modern society | December 24, 2019
ECHR: Ukraine Must Reform Whole-Life Sentence Review Procedure | March 20, 2019
Court: Germany Can Return Refugees to EU Countries with Worse Life Conditions | March 20, 2019
European Parliament Urges to Introduce New Sanction Regime for Human Rights Violation | March 19, 2019
Eurostst: Numbers of Asylum-Seekers from Ukraine Fell in 2018 | March 19, 2019
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Intolerance to Ukrainians Increased Significantly in Russia – Council of Europe’s Report
The level of intolerance to Ukrainians in Russia has increased significantly since 2014, after the illegal annexation of Crimea and Russia’s military aggression, which caused armed conflict in the east of Ukraine.
It is indicated in the report by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) established by the Council of Europe.
“The level of intolerance towards Ukrainians has increased significantly since 2014 as a result of the illegal annexation by the Russian Federation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and Russian military interference leading to armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine. This is mostly of a political nature, depicting Ukrainians as enemies of Russia,” the report says.
The document indicate that Russian officials and politicians use significant amount of racist statements, especially during the election campaigns. Their main targets are migrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia, Muslims and Ukrainians.
“Similarly, homo/transphobic hate speech features regularly in the discourse of public figures, politicians and religious leaders. Intolerant public discourse remains unchallenged and unpunished,” the Commission notes.
Nevertheless, the ECRI informs that despite the anti-Ukrainian rhetoric of the recent years, the attacks on Ukrainians are rare, “possibly because they are hard to identify.”
The authors of the report noted that the document covers the situation as of June 22, 2018.
It should be reminded that in January, the Committee of the Council of Europe expressed concern with the infringement of the rights of representatives of Ukrainian minority in Russia, who express thoughts contradicting Russian policy concerning Crimea and the conflict in the east of Ukraine.