Imagine that you are walking down the street on your usual route, lost in your own thoughts. Your favorite song is playing in your headphones, which is suddenly interrupted by a scream from behind. You barely have time to take them off when you are knocked off your feet, you feel a sharp pain from the blow. The attacker shouts insulting words about your appearance, hints at your sexual orientation, comments on your hairstyle and clothes. The blows do not stop, people around for some reason do not dare to intervene, and you cannot understand why he hits you, as if with impunity…
What happened is called a “crime based on intolerance”. Each such case is not just a statistic, behind it stands the life of a person whose basic right to safety has been violated.
Hate that affects everyone
Hate crimes are often not related to personal hostility towards a specific person, but rather reflect prejudices and stereotypes about a certain group of people. The motives for such crimes usually relate to inseparable characteristics that a person cannot or does not want to change. These can be nationality, sexual orientation, gender identity or other personal characteristics.
Prejudices often determine the choice of the “victim” or are manifested during the attack itself. For example, a person who just happened to be near Pride may become the object of an attack simply because of their presence at an event that aroused the anger of the attackers. Criminals may target human rights activists or members of the LGBT+ community, even without having personal hostility towards a specific person, but because of their identification with a certain group. Or, say, if the owners of a store hung a rainbow flag, this may become an excuse for vandalism or destruction of the window. Such actions are an immediate and often unpredictable threat, which makes combating these crimes particularly important.
Hate crimes are a clear manifestation of social injustice and discrimination, which negatively affects not only a specific person, but also society as a whole. They undermine trust in the community and contribute to the spread of an atmosphere of fear and tension.
These acts of aggression are often accompanied by serious psychological pressure and leave a lasting traumatic experience for the victims. Attackers seek not only to cause physical harm, but also to undermine a person’s confidence in their own safety, which can negatively affect their mental state, social activity and quality of life.
Therefore, it is important to understand that combating such crimes is not only a matter of protecting individual groups, but also of creating a safer and more inclusive society, where everyone has the right to live without fear of violence and discrimination.
How war intensifies aggression against LGBT+ Ukrainians
Aggression and hatred are deeply rooted in stereotypes and prejudices that exist in society. These attitudes are formed through upbringing, education, and media influence. Negative attitudes towards certain groups of people can be reinforced by religious, political, or cultural beliefs. War intensifies these attitudes, creating an atmosphere of fear and distrust, which further exacerbates social conflicts.
Uncertainty and fear for the future push people to look for “enemies” among those who look or behave differently. In times of social instability and conflict, representatives of the LGBT+ community find themselves in a particularly vulnerable position due to discrimination based on sexual orientation, appearance, and gender identity.
Over the past two years, Ukraine has seen an alarming increase in hate crimes, including homophobia and transphobia. In its 2022 report, Freedom House highlights the increase in violence and discrimination against LGBT+ people during the war. It is noted that the war has intensified xenophobic sentiments and contributed to an increase in hate crimes. However, the real number of such incidents remains unknown due to irregular monitoring and insufficient awareness of victims about their rights. Many cases of violence and discrimination against LGBT+ people are not registered due to distrust in law enforcement agencies and the potential threat of re-traumatization.
The publication “The Situation of LGBTQ People in Ukraine in January-June 2024” recorded 39 cases of such crimes, which already exceeds the indicators for the whole of 2023. This increase is likely due to both the activation of LGBT+ organizations and anti-LGBT+ groups. Cases of physical violence, attacks on LGBT+ centers and activists, as well as deliberate destruction or damage to property during events in support of the LGBT+ community, such as Pride Month and the Sunny Bunny Film Festival, are common. It is worth noting that these statistics reflect only publicly disclosed cases. The real number of hate crimes is much higher due to difficulties in obtaining information from the occupied territories and general problems with documenting such cases.
Law enforcement agencies often qualify the hate motive as ordinary cases of inflicting bodily harm, without taking into account the homophobic or transphobic motive. Only two cases of bringing criminals to justice based on hate motives in 2023 remain the only ones in Ukrainian judicial practice.
Legal vacuum in combating intolerance
Ukrainian legislation lacks clear definitions and specific punishments for acts of violence motivated by hatred of race, nationality, especially sexual orientation or gender identity. This legal vacuum allows criminals to avoid fair punishment.
Experts from the Gender Stream advocacy department note that universal articles of the Criminal Code do not take into account the specifics of hate crimes. This leads to the fact that such crimes are considered simply violence or hooliganism without taking into account the motives. Therefore, the detection and investigation of discriminatory crimes, which may have deeper social causes, is complicated. The lack of special units in the Ministry of Internal Affairs systems for such cases also creates a problem, as there is often a lack of experience and resources for an adequate response.
Ukrainian legislation already includes an article on crimes based on discrimination. The current Article 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine defines liability for violating the equality of citizens based on their race, nationality, religious beliefs, disability, and other characteristics. However, this article has several significant limitations that make it difficult to effectively combat hate crimes. In particular, it does not contain specific references to sexual orientation and gender identity, which are critically important for the protection of the LGBTIQ+ community.
As a result, cases of discrimination and violence against LGBT+ persons do not receive full legal assessment and punishment. Such crimes are forced to remain outside the attention of law enforcement agencies and the judicial system. This not only complicates the process of punishing criminals, but also creates a situation where individuals who have suffered discrimination or violence because of their identity may feel unprotected by the law, which, in turn, reduces their trust in the legal system.
To effectively address the problem of hate crimes, it is necessary not only to supplement Article 161 of the Criminal Code with the characteristics of sexual orientation and gender identity, but also to ensure a comprehensive approach to combating such crimes.
Draft Law No. 5488 as a comprehensive system for combating intolerance
Draft Law No. 5488 was initiated by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine under the current Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal precisely with the aim of introducing criminal liability for hate crimes. Its adoption will be an important step in the fight against discrimination and violence in Ukraine. The main goal of this bill is to create a legal mechanism that will allow for the clear definition and punishment of hate crimes motivated by race, nationality, sexual orientation, gender identity or other personal characteristics. This bill not only fills the existing gaps in the Criminal Code of Ukraine, but also provides a legal framework for the protection of vulnerable groups of the population, who are often targets of violence and discrimination.
Bill No. 5488 proposes a comprehensive approach to combating hate. This involves the creation of clear mechanisms for registering and investigating hate crimes, training law enforcement officers, developing national strategies to combat discrimination and violence, and raising public awareness. In order to ensure protection from such cases, it is necessary to introduce systematic monitoring and assessment of the situation.
Civil society organizations as a driving force for change
The path to the adoption of Bill No. 5488 in Ukraine turned out to be difficult and thorny. Since its registration in May 2021, the document has undergone numerous discussions, revisions, and obstacles. The Law Enforcement Committee recommended it for adoption in May 2023, but there are still many stages to go before the bill enters into force or even comes up for a vote.
Currently, bill No. 5488 is on the agenda of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Its further fate depends on the votes The second and third readings, the signing by the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada and the approval by the President, as well as whether it will be put to a vote at all. The civil sector does not cease to actively work on supporting the draft law, attracting international assistance and mobilizing resources to achieve ultimate success. The full-scale invasion threw off the attention and priority in promoting draft law No. 5488. But already in 2022, advocacy work was resumed.
In this process, civil society organizations play a critical role in promoting anti-discrimination legislation. One of the leading organizations in the advocacy process No. 5488 — Gender Stream is actively working on promoting the draft law. Over the past two years, the Gender Stream team, based on its own advocacy strategy, has initiated the creation of a coalition of human rights organizations to promote draft law No. 5488, and has held a number of strategic meetings to support it both in Ukraine and in the international arena. These include, in particular, meetings with MEPs and international organizations, appeals to international institutions, official and informal meetings with key figures in Ukraine and the country’s partners, work with the European Parliament and the European Commission and close partnership with the Council of Europe, participation in shadow reports, etc.
Since July 2024, Gender Stream has been a member of the Expert Council on Equal Rights under the representative of the Commissioner for Equal Rights and Freedoms, Rights of National Minorities, Political and Religious Views. This is another opportunity to influence decision-making and the political context in Ukraine so that the needs and challenges of LGBT+ are taken into account at the state level.
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