18 October 2023 the Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine Maciej Janczak accompanied by Office colleagues working on relevant projects implemented in Ukraine met with the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets and his team to discuss ways of further enhancement of the ongoing cooperation in the field of strengthening human rights in Ukraine.

Maciej Janczak mentioned that human rights protection with focus on the most vulnerable groups, including the war-affected people are among the top priorities exemplified by the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” 2023-2026. The Council of Europe is ready to continue strengthening the Ombudsperson’s Office institutional capacity to handle grave human rights violations and support the Ukrainian authorities in providing appropriate level of social protection to the population affected by war, including displaced people, older people, children, persons with disabilities and persons from national and other minority groups in a transparent, sustainable and gender sensitive manner.

Dmytro Lubinets made an overview of the current work of the Ombudsperson’s Office, achieved results and the challenges it is facing. He emphasised that Council of Europe is the biggest partner of the Ompudsperson’s Office. Mr. Lubinets expressed the need for expert and technical assistance from the Council of Europe side and help in conducting information campaigns to increase awareness among citizens about their human rights.

Among the issues raised during the meeting, special attention was paid to further revision of the Ombudsperson’s legislation to increase its operational capacity to the extent required by the war context, development of the regional branches of the Ombudsperson Office, as well as further enhancement of the National Preventive Mechanism functionality and expansion of its mandate in line with the emerging needs of the military context.

Moreover, participants discussed needed support to the Ukrainian authorities in protecting the human rights of military personnel, veterans, and their family members, including their social rights. Also issues of ensuring human rights in places of deprivation of liberty, including in penitentiary institutions, were highlighted.

Parties also exchanged views on harmonization of the data protection legislation in line with the European standards, discussed work on ensuring protection of information rights and, specifically, the right of access to public information.

The Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine emphasised inter alia the critical need to ensure a safe working environment for journalists and other media actors and invited the Ombudsperson’s Office to become ambassadors of the Council of Europe Campaign for the Safety of Journalists at the national level.

Parties expressed strong commitment to enhanced cooperation with a view to strengthening human rights protection particularly in the military context of Ukraine with due regard to the Council of Europe standards, including the European Convention on Human Rights, European Social Charter and European Court of Human Rights case-law.