OSCE/ODIHR announces funding for civil society projects in Ukraine

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) announced on 1 June 2016 the funding of five civil society projects in Ukraine aimed at increasing awareness of hate crime in society.

"We are looking forward to working with civil society to implement these projects," said ODIHR Civil Society Adviser Christina Sell. "The projects will complement our on-going efforts to end hate crime with Ukrainian authorities and help to raise awareness of these crimes."

The projects, selected from 33 proposals submitted to ODIHR, will carry out a range of activities to increase understanding of hate crime across Ukrainian society, along with working to provide legal support to victims and promote co-operation between civil society and the National Police.  

Olena Bondarenko, from the No Borders Project of the Social Action Centre NGO, said: "ODIHR’s support enables us to create synergies among the criminal justice sector and civil society to address hate crimes effectively. We believe that through our planned project activities, the No Borders Project and its partners will be able to make a contribution to strengthening dialogue on hate crime prevention in Ukraine."

Along with the Social Action Centre, the other four civil society groups whose projects were chosen are the Human Rights Protection LGBT Centre Nash Svit, the Zhytomir Regional Association of Social Workers, the Poltava branch of the Social Service of Ukraine, and the Public Movement “Faith, Hope, Love”.  

The projects are being funded as part of ODIHR’s project on "Strengthening dialogue among civil society and with key government stakeholders in Ukraine on human dimension issues".