A meeting, initiated by the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, was held on 15 January 2019 with Mr. Serhii Nizhynskyi, Deputy Minister of Social Policy for European Integration, with the purpose of finding an effective mechanism that would serve to improve access to social services for Ukraine’s national communities, harmonise relationships, and strengthen interethnic harmony in society. The meeting was attended by representatives from the Ministry of Social Policy; Council of Europe Office in Ukraine; Council of National Communities, Chiricli International Charitable Organisation, Coalition of Roma Non-Government Organisations, the M. P. Drahomanov National Pedagogical University.
During the meeting, Ms. Zemfira Kondur, Project Officer of the Council of Europe project “Protecting national minorities, including Roma, and minority languages in Ukraine”, emphasised the need for conducting the census, and the importance of institutionalising the profession of Interethnic Social Specialist; Ms. Kondur also provided information on the existing initiatives currently implemented in this area by the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine. For example, the experience accumulated since 2011 during implementation of the Council of Europe programmes, including those for Roma social and health mediators, has been taken in consideration while developing two national standards — the national standard for social service of mediation, and the national standard for social service of interest representation. A number of training programmes have also been introduced to provide additional specialised knowledge and skills in social mediation for social workers, interethnic communication experts.
For her part, a representative of the M. P. Drahomanov National Pedagogical University stressed the need for a training programme for social workers, focused on specifics of dealing with national communities, and also reported on the “Mediation as a form of working with the Roma national minority” special course developed in accordance with the educational and professional programme for a bachelor’s degree in “6.130101 Social care”, the “1301 Social security” field of knowledge, and implemented in 2017 in collaboration with the Council of Europe and Chiricli ICO.
Mr. Serhii Nizhynskyi emphasised that implementation of efficient policies for social protection of vulnerable groups would contribute to social integration of national communities. The Deputy Minister expressed his deep conviction that only through joint efforts by the Government, local self-government authorities and civil society structures the social problems facing national communities in Ukraine could be resolved. The attendees stressed the need for considering the establishment of the institution of interethnic mediator, given the urgent problems of national communities’ integration, including in the areas of their compact habitation.
Following the discussion, it has been agreed that a task group for social integration of national communities be set up under the Ministry of Social Policy and a meeting focused on interethnic integration issues be held in the coming March.
