News

Representatives of the Ministry of Health took part in the first explanatory meeting on the official EU legislation screening for Ukraine and Moldova on 21-22 February in Brussels.

The first meeting was devoted to negotiating Chapter 23, “Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights”, which has several issues related to the health sector, including the protection of children’s rights and the fight against discrimination on ethnic, racial, religious, and gender grounds, and the prevention of violence against children and gender-based violence.

“Ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men, diversity and inclusion are priorities of the Ministry of Health policy. Ukrainian healthcare legislation fully complies with the requirements of EU Council Directive 2000/43/EC, namely, it guarantees equal access to the medical profession and medical services regardless of age, race, skin color, political, religious or other beliefs, gender, ethnic and social origin, property status or other grounds,” said Maryna Slobodnichenko, Deputy Minister of Health for European Integration.

The session also discussed the issue of criminalizing female genital mutilation. According to the obligations undertaken by countries that have ratified the Istanbul Convention on Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, female genital mutilation should be criminalized as an independent crime.

Ukraine has also ratified the Istanbul Convention, and the Ministry of Health, together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, is currently developing recommendations that will help criminalize female genital mutilation and other cases of gender-based violence.

It should be recalled that the official screening of Ukrainian legislation consists of several stages. At the first stage, the EU explains the specifics of the functioning of its law in each of its 33 sections. To do this, representatives of the European Commission meet with representatives of Ukrainian ministries and agencies.