The President of Ukraine has signed Decree No. 1038/2026 approving a new National Human Rights Strategy. The document sets the direction of state policy for the coming years and, in particular, provides for the improvement of legislation to combat discrimination. According to Ukrainian media citing the text of the strategy, the state intends to strengthen the legal protection of victims and streamline mechanisms for identifying and suppressing discriminatory manifestations.

Administrative Liability for Discrimination

Among the key tasks of the strategy is the introduction of administrative liability for discrimination on a number of grounds, including gender, sexual orientation, and nationality. In addition to the sanctions themselves, the document involves the creation of a system for collecting, processing, and analyzing information on cases of discrimination. According to the authors' design, such data will be made public to assess the scale of the problem and the effectiveness of countermeasures.

Hate Speech in the Digital Environment

Hate speech, primarily in the digital environment, is named a separate problem in the strategy. To counter such manifestations, it is planned to improve the legal protection of victims and strengthen coordination between state bodies in identifying and suppressing hate speech. This means that the online space will be viewed as one of the main platforms where intolerance is formed and disseminated.

Criminal Law Mechanisms and Motive of Hatred

The state also intends to improve criminal law mechanisms for responding to offenses committed on the grounds of intolerance or hatred. According to the strategy, the motive of such a crime will be established by law enforcement agencies, and uniform approaches will be introduced for the investigation and review of relevant cases. This should reduce variance in practice and increase the predictability of the response to hate crimes.

LGBTIQ+ as a High-Risk Group

In the document, LGBTIQ+ are defined as one of the groups with an increased risk of discrimination, hate speech, and other manifestations of intolerance. It is noted that sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics should be more clearly and consistently reflected in legislation. It is also planned to raise awareness among representatives of this group about human rights protection mechanisms, the level of trust in state bodies, and improve access to social protection, administrative, social, medical, and educational services, and legal aid.

The Strategy Sets the Course, Not a Law

It is important to emphasize: the approved strategy determines the directions of state policy and tasks for the future, but does not introduce the specified legislative changes directly. That is, fines for discrimination and new protection mechanisms will appear only after the adoption of relevant laws. The context for these steps is also broader work on social legislation: earlier, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a bill on basic social assistance, uniting several types of payments for low-income families, and also supported bill No. 14191, which increases payments and strengthens social guarantees for families with children with disabilities and adults with disabilities since childhood.