Our Position

Dear Chairman, dear colleagues.

I represent Ukraine,  the country,  where geographical center of Europe is located  and which residents  aspire to become a part of the European Union. At the same time,  I come from a country,  which was a part of the Soviet Union  for the long 70 years – the most closed political system of the world.

According to estimations of international experts, Ukraine belongs to the 30 most corrupt states among 180 countries of the world. Citizens of our state have completely lost belief that corruption can be fought; people don’t trust the authorities, law-enforcement bodies and civic organizations. At the same time, the new anti-corruption legislation has been in force for almost a year in Ukraine. It has a new vision on relations of citizens and authorities and it can help in the everyday work of civic activists in terms of fighting corruption. CreativeUnion“TORO”- Transparency InternationalNational Contact in Ukraine in partnership with Friedrich Naumann Fund for Freedom have initiated a pilot Training Program on practical application of the new anti-corruption and information legislation in conducting civic monitoring campaigns. The first training session for civic activists took place on April 11, 2012 in Kyiv.

The members of Ukrainian National Platform of Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum are deeply concerned about the critical situation regarding the scale of corruption in Ukraine and its impact on social processes. Thus, in 2011 68 % of Ukrainian citizens were involved into corruption-related activities, though they admitted corruption is one of three most important problems of the state.

The Government of Ukraine in the person of the Prime-Minister Mykola Azarov has promised to involve citizens in public policy development, provide access to public information, counteract corruption by all means and broadly introduce e-government. These are the preliminary results of the National round table dedicated to the discussion of the draft National action plan on implementing international initiative “Open Government Partnership” in Ukraine.

Dear Mr. President!

On September 20, 2011, Ukraine, as represented by you, formally confirmed its readiness to joint the multilateral initiative Open Government Partnership, founded by eight countries ((Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States) within the framework of a UN General Assembly session in New York city and currently covering 51 countries globally. To us, as active members of civil society in Ukraine, it is important to realize that the Government of Ukraine has declared its commitment in the short term significantly to improve the situation in such areas as fighting corruption, promoting transparency in governance, increasing citizen participation in the governance process, and harnessing new technologies to strengthen governance.

In September 2011 Ukraine joined the Open Government Partnership multi-lateral initiative started by Presidents of the USA and Brazil. Civic organizations decided to help the Government secure commitments to facilitate transparency of governance, involve citizens in this process, fight corruption and harness new technologies in governance processes by establishing a Civic Partnership to support implementation of the Open Government Partnership initiative in Ukraine. To coordinate the work of the initiative at the local level, a network of regional coordinators was formed involving the Partnership members. The network's constitutive meeting took place in the vicinity of Kyiv on January 16-17.

The Ukrainian Civic Alliance “For integrity of public procurement” and the civic institution “Philosophy of the heart” on November 21, 2011 presented to public agents, public institutions, business, journalists and average people the caricatures exhibition “The price of the public procurement in Ukraine”.

HonorableViktorFedorovych!

On September 20, 2011, the wish of Ukraine to join the multi-lateral initiative “Open Government Partnership”, launched by the Presidents of the USA and Brazil and already involving 38 countries of the world, was officially declared by you as the state representative. It is important for us as the active civil society representatives to realize that the government of Ukraine is ready to make a commitment to substantially improve the condition in the following areas in short terms...

Representatives of the civil sector in Ukraine for the first time presented a report at the UN Convention against corruption at the international level. It happened during the conference of Member States to the UN Convention against Corruption, which was held on October, 24-28th   in Marrakesh (Morocco). The report was prepared by Creative Union “TORO” - Contact group Transparency International National Contact in Ukraine, entered the official documents of the Conference.