Improving citizens’ access to human rights protection through the regional network of the Ombudsperson’s Office

Key Facts

The regional network of the Ombudsperson covers all 24 regions of Ukraine with special offices to address human rights challenges in Crimea and non-government-controlled areas of Ukraine. Over 3,200 women and men were able to address human rights violations through the network in 2019 (16,200 in total since the launch of the network in 2014).

Over 1,000 places of detention and 2,185 court trials were monitored by the Ombudsperson’s representatives, which helped to preserve human dignity and ensure that people live in decent conditions, without being subjected to torture or inhuman treatment.

The human rights agenda has been incorporated in journalism higher education curricula in 20 universities (50 percent of all higher education institutions teaching journalism), building the skills of over 2,300 journalism students annually to report on the human rights situation in Ukraine. This also includes the country’s first Human Rights Journalism Masters Programme at one of Ukraine’s top universities.