Freedom House visits Ukraine for additional assessment
Earlier this year U.S.-based human rights organization Freedom House downgraded Ukraine in its annual report to the "partly free" category. The representatives of Freedom House came to Ukraine to make an additional assessment because Ukraine is very important for geopolitics. The experts of different organizations – David J. Kramer (Executive Director of Freedom House), Damon Wilson (Atlantic Council), and Robert Nurick (ex-director of Carnegie Moscow Center) – visited Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv for unprejudiced expertise.
Earlier this year U.S.-based human rights organization Freedom House downgraded Ukraine in its annual report to the "partly free" category. The representatives of Freedom House came to Ukraine to make an additional assessment because Ukraine is very important for geopolitics. The experts of different organizations – David J. Kramer (Executive Director of Freedom House), Damon Wilson (Atlantic Council), and Robert Nurick (ex-director of Carnegie Moscow Center) – visited Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv for unprejudiced expertise.
"For the past 5 years Ukraine was just above the line in the category of free countries according to our report. This year Ukraine crossed the line and is now a partly free country. The reasons for the downgrade are changes in the judicial system, problems during local elections, pressure on journalists and selective justice. Now Ukraine is just below the line, but as there is a potential to cross it again we are here to further assess the situation,” said Freedom House executive director David J. Kramer.
The experts had meetings with government officials, opposition representatives, the Security Service of Ukraine, journalists and NGOs. In Lviv they met the students and faculty of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU). They came to Lviv to understand what is happening in different regions and to understand the relationship between the central government and the regions.
The experts noticed "Ukraine fatigue" in Washington after the Orange Revolution and some disengagement with Ukraine in the United States. “Security and strategic issues are important but we need to broaden the agenda,” said Damon Wilson. “We need to understand how the U.S. can play a constructive role in Ukraine.”
The issue of religious freedom was also addressed because the religious situation is assessed when measuring freedom. The American experts were told about the cases of the government showing favoritism toward one of the denominations and neglecting the others.
Vice-rector of UCU Myroslav Marynovych mentioned that human dignity does not belong to the internal affairs of the country but to the international community and that dignity cannot be possible without freedom. He also stressed that Western democracies need to consider their responsibility for some temporal failure in building Ukrainian democracy.
