The Ukrainian Constitution sets out the fundamental principles of the state’s activity of stimulating effective nature management, environmental protection and ensuring the ecological safety for the life and health of people. Pursuant to these principles the State assumes the responsibilities to a citizen for undertaking the nature management functions and support of the ecological balance on the territory of Ukraine. Articles 50 and 66 of the Ukrainian Constitution both guarantee the right of every citizen to an environment that is safe for the life and health, and envisage the compensation of damage caused by the infringement of his right.The right of the Ukrainian citizens to environment that is safe for life and health, in addition to the Constitution, is secured by the following Codes of Ukraine: Land Code, Forest Code, Code on Natural Deposits, Water Code, as well as in the Laws of Ukraine On Protection of the Natural Environment, On Nature-Reserve Fund of Ukraine, On Ensuring Sanitary and Epidemiological Safety of the People, On Ambient Air Protection, On Utilization of the Nuclear Power and Radiation Safety, On Ecological Expertise, On Waste Products, and other standards acts developed in accordance with the requirements of the Principal Law.

Ukraine is a party to over 30 international environment-protection conventions of world-wide and regional levels, namely Convention On Water-Swamp Grounds of International Significance, mainly as water-fowl habitat (1971), Convention for Protection of the World Cultural and Nature Heritage (1972), Convention On Protection of Wild (Natural) Flora and Fauna and Natural Habitat for their Dwelling in Europe (1979), Convention On Preserving the Migratory Population of Wild Animals (1979), Vienna Convention On the Ozone Layer Protection (1985), Convention On Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution (1992), Convention On Protection and Utilization of the Transboundary Waterways and International Lakes (1992), Convention On Protection of the Biological Diversity (1992), Convention On Nuclear Safety (1994), Convention On Access to Information, Public Participation In the Decision-Making Process and Access to the Justice On Environment – Related Issues (1999). The International ecological documents charge Ukraine with additional obligations regarding preservation of the natural environment and securing ecological rights of the citizens.

To preserve an environment that is save for the existence of animate and inanimate nature, to protection the life and health of people against the negative impact of environmental pollution, to achieve a harmonious interaction of society and nature, and to rationally use and regenerate natural resources is an important objective of the state’s ecological policy on ensuring the right of every citizen to an environment that is safe for his life and health. Therefore it provides for the urgent necessity of gradual reform of the environment protection system, creation of the mechanisms necessary for utilization of the natural resources and realization of the State, national programs on these issues. This approach will assist to protect the right of individual being a part of to-date and future-coming generations to live in secure natural environment, favorable for his health and prosperity, increase the level of public ecological awareness and overcome the ecological crisis in the country.

As part of the guaranteed ecological rights of the citizens, the current legislation envisages the large-scale public programs to be carried out to support, renew and improve the environment conditions which are safe for life and health of people; maintain control over the compliance with the standard acts on environment protection, and attract public associations and individuals to take part in it. The ministries, departments, enterprises, entities and organizations are required to make necessary technical and other arrangements to avoid the deleterious effect of business and other forms of activity on the natural environment; to meet the ecological requirements in the course of planning, allocation of the productive forces, construction and operation of the national economy objects. The operative legislation sets forth the compensation mechanism for damage caused to the health and property of the citizens resulting from the violation of legislation on the natural environment protection and responsibility for its violation; any activity that hampers the exercise of the citizens’ rights to environment that is safe for life and health of people is deemed forbidden.

The key principles of the state’s environmental policy have been further developed in the strategy document – Main Guidelines of Ukraine’s State Policy on Environmental Protection, Utilization of Natural Resources, and Assurance of Environmental Safety approved by the Ukrainian Parliament on March 5, 1998.

By the utilization of the most important natural resources Ukraine belongs to the countries that are characterized by the extremely extensive and ecologically unbalanced attraction of the resources into the economical turnover. Regretfully, the extensive type of economy development has been prevailing until now, which objectively leads to the irrational nature management. Under these conditions even the significant decline in the industrial production due to the system economic crisis did not result in substantial decrease of the load on the natural environment. The implementation paces of energy/resources-saving technologies and recycling fail to comply with the current needs. The economic mechanisms of streamlining nature management and implementation of the environmental efforts do not work or are at the initial stage of evolvement.

The disproportion in the productive forces allocation, which occurred for quite a long time resulted in the abnormal level of the man-caused load on the natural environment in Ukraine, which is still four-five times higher than the similar indicator for the developed states.

By the fouling factor the whole territory of Ukraine may be conditionally divided into the following zones:

relatively clean (7% of the total land area – reservations and national parks);

conditionally clean – 8;

slightly polluted (15% of the total area of the country);

polluted – 40;

extremely polluted – 30;

ecological disaster (nearly 1% of the total area of Ukraine). These are, first of all, the alienation zone after the disaster at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and areas adjacent to it, as well as individual places in the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, Lviv and several other oblasts.

Given the state of the natural environment, the Commissioner for Human Rights is constantly keeping an eye on the human rights compliance, especially in regions with the most complicated ecological condition. For example, while considering the problems of Luhansk oblast, which is the one that suffers the most of man-caused load, related to the compliance with the constitutional rights of individuals to safe environment, the Commissioner personally made sure that Article 50 of the Ukrainian Constitution is grossly violated here. The rate of unhealthy air injections in this oblast is 20 tons per 1 squire km, which significantly exceeds the average nationwide rate in Ukraine. The coalmining sphere is restructured in many cases through the physical closure of mines with neither a strict control of the environment condition, nor forecasting the liquidation consequences, which according to the Commissioner’s opinion may cause the ecological catastrophe. The anxious signs in this oblast are visible already now.

The most serious issues related to the environment safety and protection as a result of reckless closure and water flooding of mines in the following towns – Stakhanov, Brianka and Krasnodon remain open. For example, 600 hectares of land and 2,000 buildings located here are under the threat of being flooded in Stakhanov. The experts believe that a dangerous methane outlet on the surface may happen any time. In Brianka the unmanageable rock motion has started, which caused the activation of the shifting process and deformation of buildings and engineering services. The destroyed wall of the building which houses Secondary School No.3 and foundation of a building at the Smolensky Street are evidence of it. Recently the main water pipe in this town has been destroyed 16 times, the building of the children hospital started destroying. The similar processes after the flooding of the S.Tiulenev Mine after are taking place in Krasnodon.

To certain extent the current situation is due to the fact that the “Ecology” Section in the government cost estimates earmarked for the mine closure is financed by 10% of previously scheduled funds, while the “Physical Closure” Section is financed by 50%. This attitude toward the natural environment may have negative consequences for the region inhabitants and may cost a lot to the State in general.

The Commissioner for Human Rights reached the conclusion that the current drawbacks in compliance with the human rights in Luhansk oblast in many cases resulted from the insufficient attention of the state authority bodies, bodies of local self-government and their officials to this critical problem, mainly from the part of Mr. O.Yefremov, head of the oblast administration and Mr. Tikhonov, head of the oblast Rada. Therefore the Commissioner for Human Rights made a particular stress on the issue regarding the urgent efforts to be applied for improvement of the environmental rights of the region inhabitants in Appeal to the Prime Minister of Ukraine of May 25, 1999.

The Commissioner received applications from residents of Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts of Ukraine about the infringements of right to an environment that is safe for the life and health of people, under which the Commissioner initiated proceedings on violation of human rights and freedoms.

The Commissioner for Human Rights studied how the right to an environment that is safe for the life and health is ensured, and made conclusions, which show several factors that primarily influence the status of their compliance. It is necessary to dwell on these factors in details.

Air/water pollution and accumulation of waste products. The pollutant injections into the free air in 1998 made 44% of the 1990 level At the same time the air pollution in Ukraine is caused by the injection of nearly hundred of chemical compounds and elements arising in course of the business activity, however only fifteen of them are a subject to the air quality control. Pursuant to the environmental standards of Ukraine the prevailing and most harmful polluting substances include solid weighted particles (particulate pollutants), sulfuric anhydride, carbonic oxide, nitric oxide, benzopyrene, carbolic acid (phenol), ammonia and formaldehyde.

In 1999 the rate of harmful substances emitted into the environment in Ukraine was 9.5 tons per sq. km (in 1997 this amount was 9.9 tons). The amount of harmful substances per capita made 115 tons last year (in 1997 – 117.7 tons respectively). However, it has no relation with the improvement of environment. The key factors here are enterprises that are no longer in operation.

Primarily the enterprises of energy, coal and metallurgy sectors are air pollutants. Their ratio among enterprises polluting the air environment of Ukraine accounts for only 7.3%, but they have eject 83% of all harmful substances into the environment. The most dangerous situation in air quality exists in the southeastern region of Ukraine, which includes Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Luhansk oblasts. Many powerful enterprises of ferrous metallurgy, electric-power industry, machine building industry, as well as coal-mining and coal-concentrating plants are located here. In addition a large number of heat power plants operate in this part of the country. The ecological situation in the region was the essential factor resulting in the highest death rate registered in Ukraine among men and the lowest birth rates and average life expectancy.

Substantial pollution by industrial enterprises and vehicles cause great harm primarily in the industrial cities (see Table 6.8), where the air contains the increased amount of harmful substances with nitrogen dioxide and dust (benzopyrene, phenol and ammonia).

It should be pointed out that pollution in Ukraine is gradually going down. In 1999 the stationary sources and vehicles emitted 5.6 million tons of harmful substances, which was 6.1% less than in 1997.

At the same time the Commissioner for Human Rights draws attention to the fact that motor transport is generating a growing number of types of air pollutants. Thus, in 22 Ukrainian cities, namely in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sevastopol, Odessa, Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia, vehicles account for 60-90% of the total amount of harmful emissions into the atmosphere. Vehicles have become the cause of nearly 63% of lead pollution in the country.

The amount of fresh water consumed in 1998 accounted 76% of the water consumed in 1990. The Dnieper and its branches are the main sources of fresh water for the northern, central and eastern regions, and consequently the Dnieper ecosystem is subjected to intensive overuse. In addition, the environmental conditions in the Dnieper basin become more aggravated because of the regulated river flow that is causing extensive growth of algae and erosion of 36% of the river banks (3,079 km). 6,176 hectares of land has been lost because of landslides. During the past 35 years, 337 million cubic meters of soil was washed down to the river.

This situation causes the destruction of industrial facilities. In particular, Mr.V. Kolesnyk and Mrs.T.Gromova, residents of Dnipropetrovsk, appealed to the Commissioner regarding the emergency condition of multistoried buildings where they dwelled, resulting from the landslide. Their appeal was transferred to the bodies of local government, which are empowered to address these issues.

Unfortunately, the flooding of residential houses occurs in many regions. Mrs. M. Pokotylo from Ivano-Frankivsk oblast applied to the Commissioner on violation of her right to the safe environment because of the flooding of the house where she lived by surface waters. Mr. M. Kashchuk from Mykolaiv oblast complained about the failure to provide him with a dwelling instead of the flooded house that is unfit for human habitation. Based on these appeals, the Commissioner for Human Rights initiated inquiries into violation of the human right to an environment that is safe for the life and health. Unfortunately, due to the difficult economic conditions in Ukraine, the applicants’ rights were not restored properly.

In Ukraine the water capacity of GDP increased by 73% compared with 1990, the rate of polluted substances dumping per GDP unit decreased three-four times, and pollution of surface water objects increased 4.25 times. One can see the expressive tendency towards the growth of the polluted drain decrease – by 32% during this period. The sectors of industry with more than 50% of drains being polluted include coal industry, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, machine building, metal-working industry, light, chemical and petrochemical industry, housing/communal and consumer services. However, the purifying capacities fail to provide high quality purification (treatment) of the increased volume of the sewage water, therefore due to the poor quality of the waste water, 3,469 million cubic meters of undertreated water got into the surface water objects. Over 18% of the total polluted sewage water is spilled into the reservoirs absolutely untreated. 763 million cubic meters of sewage water was wasted without any treatment.

The basins of the Danube, Dniester, South Buh, Siversky Donets and Dnieper suffer from the highest pollution by nitrogen compounds, carbolic acid (phenol), high-density metals, and petrochemicals, which is a real violation of the environmental rights of our citizens.

Based on the experts’ calculations, to provide all inhabitants worldwide with the quality water by 2025, one should double the investments into this sphere. Ukraine, taking into account the current environmental conditions, requires significant amount of funds. Due to their insufficiency, the quality of water consumed by the people for business and drinking needs is improved by extremely slow pace. Every seventh sample of water that is tested actually fails to comply with the requirements meeting sanitary/chemical indicators, and every twelfth –microbiological indicators. Nearly every fifth sample of water collected from the tanks in the water consumption places fails to comply with hygienic standards.

The Commissioner for Human Rights believes that the government has to strengthen control over the water pollution by the industrial enterprises and communal facilities, as well as water distribution, utilization and conservation. One should not afford the ecological disaster similar to the one that happened to Tisa River in Romania, with consequences that affected Hungary and Ukraine’s Transcarpathia oblast.

The water supply is related with the problem of toxic waste accumulation. The bulk of waste products in the surface storage accumulated nationwide in Ukraine is over 25 billion tons, which is nearly 40,000 tons per 1 square meter, or over 400 tons per person. The industry makes one-third part of the national economy of Ukraine, however in many cases it has no efficient waste processing technologies. Consequently, the untreated industrial waste is accumulated. Nearly 100 million tons of waste products accumulated annually in Ukraine, among which 2.5 – 3.5 million tons are the most dangerous according to the European standards (I – III category of danger). Slag storage and dumps cover 160 000 hectares, or 0.27% of the total territory of Ukraine (the nature reserves cover 2.6% of the territory). The annual increase of the solid domestic waste makes approximately 1.5 – 2% of the total waste products available. The absolute volume in Ukraine is equal to 10-11 million tons per annum, or 40 million cubic meters. The dangerous situation regarding placement and processing of the dangerous waste products has developed in many regions, therefore it is impossible to guarantee that a certain portion will not fall into the surface or subsurface waters. The Commissioner for Human Rights considers necessary to draw attention of relevant state authorities to this critical problem in order to resolve as quick as possible.

The housing facilities in cities and townships of Ukraine annually produce nearly 40 million cubic meters of garbage, which is neutralized at 656 urban dumps (landfills) and 4 garbage-disposal plants. Although these capacities fail to comply with the modern requirements, therefore nearly 80% dumps of municipal waste is utilized without the arrangements preventing the pollution of the underground waters and air environment. The traditional technology of municipal waste neutralization at the dumps cannot be applied in the rural area, where the dumps are generally placed, which provides no opportunity to reduce the pollution of environment.

Nuclear power plants operating in Ukraine also affect the environmental safety of the country. Nuclear waste is accumulated mainly at the plants, where it is preprocessed and stored temporarily. These energy objects do not have the complete cycle for waste preprocessing. Under such conditions the underground storages are used ineffectively causing the increase of radionuclide pollution risk for soils and underground waters.

The enterprises involved in production and dressing of uranium ore are located in Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Kirovograd oblasts The highest danger for environment refers to the large number of uranium production and processing refuse as well as radioactive substances, which make the part of the refuse, and may cause radioactive contamination.

Emergencies of natural and man-caused origin. Utilization of outmoded technologies and facilities in many cases, extremely high concentration of potentially dangerous objects in certain regions, amortization and depreciation of fixed asserts of the enterprises stipulate for great likelihood of accidents and man-caused disasters with severe consequences for the environment and health of people. Ukraine is one of the most critical regions of Europe given the man-caused load. And does not mean only the Chornobyl zone. These problems have not been resolved at more than 2,000 large stationary, potentially dangerous facilities. According to the Commissioner for Human Rights, the nuclear and hydroelectric power stations; chemical plants; oil, gas and ammonia pipelines; precipitation tanks and storages with dangerous substances cause special hazard for the people and environment.

The number of emergency-caused pollution of the environment by facilities remain significant (Table 6.9). Only in 1999 the losses incurred from the emergency pollution of the environment made over UAH 7.6 million (UAH 2.9 million – 1998).

Emergencies. 2,117 emergencies happened in Ukraine in 1998. The most severe included: disaster inundation in Transcarpathia oblast; accidents at the O.Skochinsky and Petrovska mines in Donetsk; mine named after 21 Congress in Luhansk oblast; underflooding in Kherson, Zaporizhia and Mykolaiv oblasts; air accidents with Ukrainian airplanes in Asmara (Erytrea), Ras-el-Haim (United Arab Emirates) and near Quito-Bie (Angola); land slide and destruction of the roadways in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea; squall in Rivne oblast, etc. The largest number of 1998 man-caused emergencies was registered in the industrial regions: in Donetsk oblast (83), Lviv oblast (63), Luhansk oblast (50) and Odessa oblast (48).

During 1999, 43 incidents happened at five nuclear power stations, 33 referred to unscheduled reactor shutdown and 8 cases of reduction of the power generating units capacity. The largest quantity of the emergencies happened at the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant – 17 and Rivne Nuclear Power Plant – 16.

Along with the reasons for emergencies, such as: man-caused load on the territory, significant amortization and depreciation of the main production facilities in major enterprises, deterioration of the logistic support, decrease of the production and technological discipline, unsatisfactory state of preservation, recycling and burial of highly toxic, radioactive and domestic waste products, ignorance of ecological factors and standards’ requirements, the Commissioner marks the insufficient attention of the authority officials to the package plan to be implemented in order to prevent the violation of the human rights to the environment that is safe for the life and health of people, and to reduce the consequences of the emergencies of the man-caused and natural origin.

The events in Transcarpathia oblast prove this thesis. In early November 1998 thousands of local inhabitants lost their houses because of the flood. The water blocked many highways that connect Ukraine with its western neighbors. The railroad station Chop being an important European transportation center, was found inundated. 118 settlements and 6,754 houses were inundated in the oblast, 795 buildings were destroyed, 24,340 persons were evacuated. 46 raions of the western oblasts were disconnected form electric power supply, 22 bridges and 338.8 km of the local roadways were damaged because of the flood.

The Commissioner for Human Rights personally visited the flood area in the Transcarpathia oblast to reveal the calamity consequences for the area residents. The children, in particular young orphans, turned out to be the most protected in the area of natural disaster. Under the Commissioner’s initiative the meeting was held with Mr. Josef Djorke, the representative of the UNHCR office, where the Commissioner suggested to exercise a joint project on earmarked assistance to be rendered to the orphan children victims. The Kyiv “Yunist” garment factory promptly sewed 200 warm fur-coats for children under the financial support of the UNHCR office.

Together with Mrs. Yoko Akasaka, UNHCR advisor, the international humanitarian assistance was delivered and passed to the orphan children of the Chynadieve orphanage (Mukacheve raion) and Besniana orphanage (Berehiv raion) in Transcarpathia oblast.

During the trip, the Commissioner received a large number of applications from individuals who suffered because of the flood. The people asked to assist them in receiving the government help, since their right to the safe environment was violated. Based on these applications the Commissioner submitted the appropriate appeals to the government bodies.

The Commissioner considers necessary to draw attention to the state of compliance with the right of Ukrainian citizens to the ecological information. Pursuant to Article 50 of the Ukrainian Constitution every person is granted the right to free access to the information about the environment condition and no one is allowed to classify this information as secret. This right has to be realized by the state authority and local self-government bodies who are required to inform the people on regular basis and through mass media about the status of environment, time history, sources of pollution, allocation of waste or other degradation of environment and the nature of environment factors influence on the people’s health. This right must be realized also by ensuring the free-of-charge access to the environment data maintained in the lists, registries, archives and other database forms which are no subject to the State secret.

In particular, Article 9 of the Law On Environmental Protection envisages the right of every Ukrainian citizen to take part in discussing drafts laws, materials on allocation, construction and reconstruction of objects that may provide the negative impact on the environment condition and submit proposals to the authorities and business bodies, entities, and organizations on these issues. Every citizen is entitled to participate in development and undertaking arrangements related to the environment protection, natural resources conservation and multipurpose utilization; to carry out public environmental impact assessment; to obtain in appropriate manner full and reliable information on the environment condition and its impact on the people’s health; and to submit court appeals against the authorities, enterprises, entities, organizations and individuals on compensation of damages caused to the health and property due to the negative impact on the environment.

Ukraine, successively realizing the proclaimed constitutional right of individual to free access to the information on the environment condition, ratified the Convention on access to the information, participation of public in the decision making process and access to the justice on environment-related issues (Orkhus convention) on July 6, 1999. The convention envisages the creation and improvement of mechanisms for public access to the information, participation in the decision-making process and access to the justice on the environment-related issues. The participation of public in these processes will help to improve the quality of management decisions, which after all will produce the social and ecological effect, and become the instrument of public control over the violation of the constitutional rights. The Convention is expected to provide the positive impact on the cooperation between the public and state bodies, which is one of the conditions for the development of democratic society. The ratification of the Orkhus convention is also an evidence of sequential course of Ukraine to protecting the environment for the present and future generations in accordance with the generally accepted European standards.

At the same time the Commissioner for Human Rights considers necessary to indicate that although the legislative bodies passed important legal acts, the work of relevant offices authorized to explain the individuals their environment rights and guarantees in the state is absolutely unsatisfactory. Unfortunately, the realization mechanism for the proclaimed right of citizens to free collection, storage, utilization and dissemination of ecological information by word of mouth, in writing or in other way has not been finalized yet. This information is neither published regularly in the official printing sources, nor disseminated by the information service of government bodies and organizations. To carry out the environment monitoring and develop the annual reports (based on the monitoring results) on the environment condition nationwide and in particular regions, as well as make this information public through the mass media have not become a norm. The Ukrainian citizens are informed untimely and in many cases with significant delay about the natural and man-caused accidents and calamities, which have caused or threaten to cause the harmful ecological consequences. The appropriate legal framework and organizational background for ensuring the right of the Ukrainian citizens to free access to the environment data have not been established yet.

One of the main reasons why the constitutional right of the individuals to environment that is safe for the life and health of people is violated can be explained by the unsatisfactory funding of the environmental expenditures. For example, in 1998, UAH 33.4 million or 51% of the amount planned for environmental purposes, envisaged by the State Budget in section “Environment Protection and Nuclear Safety” was financed; in 1999 – UAH 54 million or 63.3% of the amount planned (Table 6.10). This amount of funds is insufficient. While the share of all environmental spending in Ukraine (as indicated by settlement statements) during 1996-1998 period was within 0.3 – 0.4 of GDP, in the majority of Western European countries the share of all environmental spending varied within 1.5 -4% of GDP; the GDP rate per capita in these countries is 2-10 times higher than the GDP rate in Ukraine.

To establish the environment that is safe for the life and health of people it is very important to further improve the legislative framework in the area of preservation, extension, reconstruction and protection of integral system of territories with natural condition of landscape and other natural complexes and unique territories, creation of natural objects based on these territories, which are a subject to special protection. These efforts will contribute to reduction, prevention and liquidation of negative impact of business and other man-caused activities on the environment, as well as preservation of natural resources, genetic fund of animate nature.

Under these conditions the formation of a relevant environment network of Ukraine may become one of the ways for ensuring the environmental rights of citizens. The Commissioner for Human Rights supports proposals on legal approval of the prospective network creation program in Ukraine. This program was developed by the experts pursuant to the requirements for further finalization, improvement and development of the environmental legislation of Ukraine, as well as under the recommendations of the All-European Strategy for Preservation of Biological and Landscape Diversity, which are part of formation of All-European environment network as an integral space system of European-countries territories with natural or partially changed landscape status.