What is the goal and objective of the project?
Main goal of the project is to enable people living in Ukraine to benefit more effectively from improved protection from discrimination on different grounds, reflecting continued progress towards alignment with European standards and the European Union acquis.
This will be achieved by:

•  Further strengthening the capacity of institutions in Ukraine to address discrimination and hate crime through legal and policy tools, increasingly aligning with the EU acquis, other European standards, and European Court of Human Rights case law.
•  Further enhancing legal and institutional protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities, including Roma, is strengthened in line with European standards.  

How does the project work? / How will the action work?

• A combination of tailored policy/legislative, capacity-building and awareness raising actions. 
• Initiatives to foster inter-institutional cooperation, and improve dialogue between institutions, civil society organizations and minority communities.
• Support to civil society organisations by 10 grant schemes, to enhance their capacities to tackle discrimination and stigmatisation at local level.
   

What do we expect to achieve?

•  Current legislation and policies for the protection from discrimination are further finetuned and gaps in the alignment with European standards and the EU acquis, addressed.
•  Legal and non-legal redress mechanisms for discrimination are further strengthened and effectively accessible to people living in Ukraine, particularly marginalised groups.
•  Non state actors in Ukraine feed with quality data the legislative and policy reform process related to equality, non-discrimination, and related protection mechanisms.
•  The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) is provided with tools and (human) resources to coordinate the implementation of policies on national minorities, equality and non-discrimination.
•  Protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities in the fields of education and language use continues to advance in line with European standards, particularly those stemming from the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML).
•  Local institutions increasingly ensure the full implementation of European standards on the gender-responsive protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities.