Liudmyla Denisova Explained

Lyudmyla Denisova
Caption:Denisova in 2014
Order:3rd
Office:Ombudsman in Ukraine
Term Start:15 March 2018
Term End:31 May 2022
President:
Primeminister:
Predecessor:Valeriya Lutkovska[1]
Successor:Dmytro Lubinets
Order1:3rd
Office1:Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine
Term Start1:27 February 2014
Term End1:2 December 2014
President1:
Primeminister1:Arseniy Yatsenyuk
Predecessor1:Natalia Korolevska
Successor1:Pavlo Rozenko[2]
Term Start2:18 December 2007
Term End2:11 March 2010
President2:Viktor Yanukovych
Primeminister2:Yulia Tymoshenko
Predecessor2:Mykhailo Papiev
Successor2:Vasyl Nadraha
Office3:People's Deputy of Ukraine
Term Start3:27 November 2014[3]
Term End3:15 March 2018
Term Start4:15 December 2012[4]
Term End4:27 February 2014
Birth Date:6 July 1960
Birth Place:Arkhangelsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Russia)
Party:People's Front
Otherparty:Batkivshchyna (2005–2014)
Spouse:Oleksandr Ivanovych[5] [6]
Children:
  • Olena
  • Oleksandra
Residence:Kyiv, Ukraine
Occupation:Politician, teacher, lawyer and economist
Native Name Lang:uk
Term Start5:25 May 2006
Term End5:18 December 2007

Liudmyla Leontiivna Denisova (born 6 July 1960) is a Ukrainian politician. After twice serving as Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine, Denisova worked as Ombudsman for Human Rights in Ukraine from March 2018 to May 2022.[7]

Biography

Raised by her mother Nina Ivanovna Ankudinova (born 1934) in Arkhangelsk, Denisova graduated from the Arkhangelsk Pedagogical School (1978), Leningrad State University (1989), and the Tavria Institute of Enterprise and Law in Simferopol (1995).

Professional career

Denisova was a teacher at a preschool in Arkhangelsk from 1979 to 1980. For the next nine years, Denisova held different posts in the Arkhangelsk provincial law court. In 1989, she moved to Ukraine and became the legal adviser of the Crimean Provincial Committee of Ukraine (1990–91). From 1991 she worked in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea's Administration of the pension fund until 1998.

Political career

In 1998, Denisova became the Minister of Economy and Finances in the Crimean government.[8] In Ukraine's Autonomous Republic of Crimea, she served as Minister of Economy, Minister of Finance and head of the Treasury Department. Denisova was named Politician of the Year in 2001. In 2000, Denisova was detained for 24 hours and charged with power abuse.[9] Denisova has stated she was persecuted for refusing to sign a budget document.[9] This criminal case was soon closed.[9]

Denisova was a member of Batkivshchyna (Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc) from 2005 to 2014.[8] During the 2006 and 2007, parliamentary elections, she was elected as a deputy to the Verkhovna Rada.[10]

Minister

On 18 December 2007, Yulia Tymoshenko, with a margin of two votes, was elected Prime Minister,[11] and the second Tymoshenko Government was formed between the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc in which Denisova was elected Minister of Labour and Social Policy.

In October 2009, Denisova was ranked 15th in the top 100 of "most influential women in Ukraine" compiled by experts for the Ukrainian magazine Focus (six places lower than non-minister and fellow Batkivshchyna member Natalia Korolevska).[12]

2010 Crimean parliamentary election

Denisova headed the electoral list of Batkivshchyna during the 2010 Crimean parliamentary election.[13] Batkivshchyna did not win seats in the Supreme Council of Crimea.[14]

2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election

Denisova was placed at number 38 on the electoral list of Batkivshchyna during the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[15] She was re-elected into the Verkhovna Rada[16]

2nd minister post

On 27 February 2014, Denisova became Minister of Labour and Social Policy in the Yatsenyuk Government.[17]

In September 2014 Denisova became a founding member of the People's Front party.[18]

In July 2017, she became Ukraine's head of the permanent delegation to represent the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation.[19]

2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election

In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Denisova was re-elected into the Verkhovna Rada, placed 15th on the electoral list of People's Front.[20] [21] [22]

Ombudsman for Human Rights in Ukraine

On 15 March 2018, the Verkhovna Rada appointed Denisova Ombudsman to head the Ukrainian Commission for Human Rights, where she led a team of human rights and constitutional lawyers.[23] [7]

In February 2019, following the Kerch Strait incident in which Russia and Ukraine's tensions had dramatically increased and the Federal Security Service had taken into custody a number of Ukrainian troops, Denisova was able to make contact with Tatyana Moskalkova, her Russian counterpart, via an impromptu meeting, and discuss the status of wounded Ukrainian prisoners of war.[24] The latter had previously refused to meet with her after Denisova launched an official protest that she was not able to visit the Ukrainian wounded soldiers directly.[25]

During the Russian invasion she was described as becoming "one of the leading voices of Ukraine’s suffering and outrage, appearing frequently in news coverage and producing a copious stream of social media posts"[23] She set up a hotline for citizens to report human rights violations and requests for help. According to New York Times, "The vast majority [of calls], more than 15,000 in the first six weeks of war, were for missing people, but requests also come in for humanitarian aid and safe corridors out of besieged cities... The information from callers is fed into a database that Ms. Denisova shares with government officials and prosecutors. As such, it has become an invaluable first warning system for the gross human rights abuses occurring in the cities under assault, and in the towns and villages occupied by Russian troops."[23] Denisova argued that Russian forces were committing genocide, citing the systematic sexual violence by Russian troops and the forcible deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.[23] She said that in many cases Russian soldiers had called Ukrainian women "Nazi whores" and raped them “until they can't give birth, or give birth to their children" "This suggests that they want to destroy the Ukrainian nation. And when they kill children, it also means that they do not want our nation to be in this world.”[23]

On 31 May 2022, the Verkhovna Rada voted to dismiss her, using the provisions of Ukraine's martial law, for failing to facilitate humanitarian corridors in warzones, to prevent Ukrainians under Russian occupation from being deported to Russia, and to facilitate the protection and exchange of prisoners of war.[26] [27] [28] The deputy chairman of the Rada regulatory committee said that Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk had had to take on most of the wartime human rights issues.[27] An open letter from 140 activists, media professionals and lawyers criticized the rhetoric of her reports about sexual crimes by Russian forces just before her dismissal.[29] [30]

Some NGOs and human rights activists, including Opora, questioned the legality of her removal. The Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) and the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) both criticised the procedure followed for dismissing Denisova, with HRMMU describing the dismissal as "violat[ing] international standards"., a replacement had not been appointed.[28] [31] [32] [33] In June, Ukrainska Pravda published a report alleging that journalists and the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office had only been able to verify some of the rapes Denisova had spoken about publicly.[34] Additionally, the deputy chairman of Ukraine's parliament regulatory committee Pavlo Frolov said that Denisova's focus on reporting some unverified crimes had harmed Ukraine's reputation and distracted media attention from proven crimes and problems.[35]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Людмила Деніcова — омбудсмен: що із цього вийде? . Lyudmila Denisova - Ombudsman: what will happen? . www.ukrinform.ua. 19 March 2018 .
  2. News: Rada supports coalition-proposed government lineup. . 2 December 2014.
    News: Rada approves new Cabinet with three foreigners. . 2 December 2014.
    News: Rada voted the new Cabinet]. . UK. 2 December 2014.
  3. News: CEC registers 357 newly elected deputies of 422 . . 25 November 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20141204164227/http://www.nrcu.gov.ua/en/148/583500/ . 4 December 2014 .
    News: Parliament to form leadership and coalition on November 27 . . 26 November 2014 .
  4. http://ukrainianweek.com/Politics/60928 You Scratch My Back, and I’ll Scratch Yours
  5. Web site: Царские хоромы и убогие квартирки украинских министров - 2. ФОТО . Royal mansions and miserable apartments of Ukrainian ministers - 2. PHOTO . www.rupor.info.
  6. http://www.vlada.kiev.ua/fcontent.php?pacode=311&topic=8523 Biography
  7. Web site: Рада обрала нового омбудсмена . The Rada elected a new ombudsman. Ukrayinska Pravda (15 March 2018)
  8. Web site: Новый состав Кабмина принят единогласно . The new composition of the Cabinet was adopted unanimously . 23 April 2008 . 24 June 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080624061344/http://news.mediaport.info/ukraine/2007/47857.shtml . dead ., news.mediaport.ua
  9. Web site: Is She Next? . . 3 September 2010.
  10. Web site: Про дострокове припинення повноважень народного депутата України Денісової Л.Л. . On the early termination of the powers of People's Deputy of Ukraine L. L. Denisova. . 2023-12-07 . Офіційний вебпортал парламенту України . uk.
  11. News: Yulia Tymoshenko elected Prime-Minister . Youtube . 18 December 2007. 18 December 2007. Ukrainian.
  12. Web site: Рейтинг Фокуса: 100 самых влиятельных женщин и 100 деталей о них . 23 October 2009 . Focus Rating: 100 most influential women and 100 details about them . 27 October 2009 . 27 February 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140227220327/http://focus.ua/charts/73740 . dead ., Focus
  13. http://www.kyivpost.com/news/politics/detail/84392/ Liudmyla Denisova heads electoral list of Crimean branch of Batkivschyna Party
  14. Results of the elections, preliminary data, on interactive maps by Ukrayinska Pravda (8 November 2010)
  15. http://ukrainianweek.com/Politics/58995 They Call Themselves the Opposition
  16. News: Список депутатів нової Верховної Ради . List of deputies of the new Verkhovna Rada . . 11 November 2012.
  17. http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/193035.html Maidan nominates Yatseniuk for prime minister
  18. http://www.demotix.com/news/5721391/yatseniuk-elected-head-political-council-peoples-front-party#media-5721330 Yatseniuk elected head of political council of People's Front Party
  19. Web site: Народный депутат Людмила Денисова избрана заместителем главы ПАЧЭС . People's Deputy Lyudmila Denisova was elected Deputy Head of the PABSEC . 18 June 2022 . Зеркало недели Дзеркало тижня Mirror Weekly.
  20. http://www.ukrinform.ua/eng/news/poroshenko_bloc_to_have_greatest_number_of_seats_in_parliament_327072 Poroshenko Bloc to have greatest number of seats in parliament
  21. Full electoral list of "Fatherland", TVi (15 September 2014)
  22. Electoral list of People's Front, Ukrayinska Pravda (20 September 2014)
  23. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/29/world/europe/on-the-trail-of-russian-war-crimes.html On the Trail of Russian War Crimes
  24. Web site: Денисова обсудила с Москальковой состояние здоровья раненых украинских военных . Denisova discussed with Moskalkova the health status of wounded Ukrainian soldiers . 18 June 2022 . Крым.Реалии . 21 February 2019 . ru.
  25. Web site: Москалькова отменила официальную встречу с Денисовой из-за ее протеста . Moskalkova canceled an official meeting with Denisova due to her protest . 18 June 2022 . Крым.Реалии . 21 February 2019 . ru.
  26. News: Saidel . Peter . 31 May 2022 . Ukraine's Parliament Dismisses Human-Rights Chief . Wall Street Journal . subscription . 31 May 2022.
  27. News: Burdyha . Igor . 3 June 2022 . Why Ukraine's human rights chief Lyudmila Denisova was dismissed . Deutsche Welle . live . 15 June 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220613161230/https://www.dw.com/en/why-ukraines-human-rights-chief-lyudmila-denisova-was-dismissed/a-62017920 . 13 June 2022.
  28. Web site: Chervonenko . Vitaly . 31 May 2022 . Денісову звільнили з посади омбудсмена. За що і чи це законно . Denisova was dismissed from the post of ombudsman. Why and is it legal? . . Ukrainian.
  29. Web site: 25 May 2022 . Медійниці закликали Людмилу Денісову скоригувати комунікацію про статеві злочини в час війни . Media women urged Lyudmila Denisova to correct the communication about sexual crimes during the war . 2022-07-08 . detector.media . uk.
  30. Web site: 31 May 2022 . Rada dismisses human rights commissioner, but why? . 2022-07-08 . english.nv.ua . en.
  31. Web site: 2022-05-31 . Human rights defenders demand compliance with procedures and independent competition for the position of the Commissioner for Human Rights ZMINA Центр Прав Людини . 2022-07-08 . zmina.ua . en-GB.
  32. Web site: 1 June 2022 . UN: Ombudsman's dismissal 'contrary to international standards.' . 2022-07-08 . The Kyiv Independent.
  33. Web site: Lukashova . Sonya . 27 June 2022 . От facebook до допросов. Почему омбудсмен Денисова потеряла должность . From facebook to interrogations. Why Ombudsman Denisova lost her position . 2022-07-08 . . ru.
  34. Web site: 28 June 2022 . 'This will not help us defeat the enemy' A new report looks at Ukrainian Ombudsman Lyudmyla Denisova, who was fired after officials couldn't confirm her stories of rape committed by Russian soldiers . 2022-07-08 . Meduza . en.
  35. Web site: Why Ukraine's human rights chief Lyudmila Denisova was fired – DW – 06/03/2022 . 2022-11-29 . dw.com . en.