Protection of the LGBT community’s rights during the war in Ukraine

Abstract

The article puts an emphasis on the need to protect the rights of LGBT communities. Although the issue of protecting LGBTI rights was considered in the writings of domestic scientists, the Russian- Ukrainian war has become a new challenge for LGBT representatives and caused new problems for them. In the conditions of the war in Ukraine, this is an urgent issue today, because nowadays, persons in same-sex relationships experience restrictions on their rights. The author emphasizes that in connection with the desire of our country to become a full member of the EU, a significant task for it is to prevent discrimination based on such grounds as sexual orientation and gender equality. Despite the public’s negative attitude towards representatives of the so-called “sexual minorities”, the latter stood up to protect their Motherland. Therefore, the state’s performance of its obligations towards such persons is an important issue today. The problem is that there is no normative consolidation of the legal status of LGBT communities in Ukraine and this leads to a limited amount of constitutional, civil, and family rights compared to other citizens. However, in the conditions of the war, representatives of the LGBT community feel even more restricted in their rights than before the war. In particular, they cannot legalize their relations and because of this certain difficulties arise. The author draws attention to the fact that the presence of gaps in the current legislation leads to the fact that LGBT military personnel do not have the same rights as other citizens of Ukraine, although they fight for the independence and territorial integrity of our state. The article highlights that changes to the Constitution of Ukraine cannot be made during the war. Therefore, injustice towards LGBT military personnel should be eliminated by adopting the Law of Ukraine “On the Institute of Registered Partnerships”. The article draws attention to the fact that national courts, if to analyze their practice, are «not ready» to protect LGBTI rights due to the negative perception of these persons in the state. The author emphasizes that the courts must effectively protect the rights of LGBTI people and restore their violated rights. They should also take into account the fact that the practice of the ECtHR is aimed at protecting the rights of the LGBT community. However, a completely different situation is observed in Ukraine, which leads to the adoption of decisions against our state and this generates negative consequences for it.