last updated January 14, 2003 

Introduction
While Ukraine’s ethnic minorities have made some progress toward fair treatment in recent years, problems related to discrimination, political representation and minority language use remain unresolved. Meanwhile, Ukrainian women in general are hindered by open employment discrimination. Trafficking in Ukrainian women is also widespread.

History & current situation of minority groups
Ethnic groups in Ukraine include Russians, Jews, Belarusians, Moldovans, Bulgarians, Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, and Crimean Tatars. Ethnic Russians were an increasingly powerful force in Ukraine from the late 17th century until the end of Soviet rule in 1991; they have since lost their privileged status. Tatars, who live mainly in the Crimean peninsula, began settling in present-day Ukraine in the mid-13th century. The ranks of Crimean Tatars are presently growing due to relatively high birth rates, and to waves of Crimean Tatar immigrants from Uzbekistan.

Some of Ukraine’s ethnic minorities have assimilated, to varying degrees, into the wider culture. Representatives of ethnic minorities hold elective offices, even in majoritarian districts, and ethnic minority voters tend to support mainstream parties over ethnic- or religious-based parties.

Nevertheless, ethnic minorities do not hold an equal place in Ukrainian society. Police racism has been a serious problem, with police subjecting people with dark skin and people from the Caucasus to unlawful identity checks and arbitrarily detentions. Police have failed to investigate complaints about racist attacks by skinheads and others. The role of minority languages continues to be controversial as Ukraine’s diverse population adjusts to independence and the government installs new policies to “de-Russify” the country. On one hand, Ukrainian law permits the use of minority languages, along with Ukrainian, in public institutions in areas where a minority ethnic group constitutes the majority of the population. However, the government has expanded the use of Ukrainian in education, the media and government, even closing Russian-language schools. Certain Ukrainian laws restrict broadcast languages, negatively impacting speakers of minority languages.

Issues faced by ethnic minority women
Women minorities bear additional disadvantages. Women in Ukraine face endemic employment discrimination, based on gender as well as marital status, age and appearance. The trafficking in women to work in forced prostitution is a major problem in Ukraine, and few official efforts are made to protect women and to punish traffickers.

The situation of Ukraine’s ethnic Russians varies by region. In western Ukraine, where ethnic Russians are less numerous, ethnic Russians are experiencing occasional acts of violence. Electoral laws disadvantage primarily Russian political parties. By contrast, ethnic Russians in the Crimea, where they constitute approximately 64 percent of the population, are subject to little governmental repression and less societal discrimination than ethnic Russians elsewhere in the country. Indeed, Ukrainian speakers living in heavily ethnic Russian regions face the hardships of dependence on a minority-status language. Crimean Russians have sought to limit Tatar access to housing, land and jobs, and have objected to President Kuchma’s recommendation that Tatars be guaranteed representation in the Crimean government.

Crimean Tatars, comprising about 12 percent of the Crimean population, have organized and overcome legal setbacks to secure some Tatar representation in local, regional and national legislative bodies. The group continues to struggle for access to state jobs, and the historical deportation of Tatars from ancestral lands in Crimea is an ongoing source of political friction.

The country’s Jewish population has experienced hostile acts such as the vandalization of synagogues, and anti-Semitic expressions in the media.

There have been some positive developments for ethnic minorities in Ukraine. The country’s 1992 Law on National Minorities is has been deemed by the Council of Europe as one of the best of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe. Persons of ethnic Russian and Jewish descent are active in Parliament and the presidential administration. Large numbers of Tatars have returned to Crimea and some have been able to reclaim ancestral land. In 2003, 10,000 Jewish pilgrims spent Rosh Hashanah at the Ukrainian burial place of the great-grandson of Hassidism’s founder, an event seen by some as a blow against the region’s historical anti-Semitism.

Compiled from:

U.S. Department of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Background Notes: Ukraine, January 2003.

Freedom House, Nations in Transit 2003: Ukraine, 2003.

International Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Human Rights in the OSCE Region: Europe, Central Asia and North America, Report 2003 (Events of 2002): Ukraine, 2003.

Minorities at Risk, Minority Group Assessments: Russians of the Ukraine.

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, 9 July 2003.

Human Rights Watch, Women’s Work: Discrimination Against Women in the Ukrainian Labor Force, 2003.

Human Rights Watch: Women’s Rights, 2003.

Minorities at Risk, Minority Group Assessments: Crimean Russians In Ukraine.

Minorities at Risk, Minority Group Assessments: Crimean Tatars of the Ukraine;

Kiev Post, Editorial, “Cosmopolitan Ukraine", 2 October 2003.