Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a new National Human Rights Strategy that names LGBTQIA+ people as a group at heightened risk of discrimination and makes upholding their rights an official state policy goal.
Image: Volodymyr Zelensky at a presidential address on 28 November 2025. (Wikimedia Commons/Office Of The President Of Ukraine)
By Marvin Valdez
Decree No. 1038/2026 was signed on 12 October and took effect upon publication on 15 October.
The document lists LGBTQIA+ people alongside children, people with disabilities, war veterans, internally displaced people and national minorities as groups needing particular state attention. Its Operational Goal 14 covers preventing discrimination, hate speech and crimes motivated by intolerance, along with upholding LGBTQIA+ rights.
The strategy also names gaps in Ukrainian law. “Sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics require clearer and more consistent reflection in legislation,” it states. It singles out hate-crime laws and anti-discrimination mechanisms. Planned measures include consistent approaches to investigating hate crimes, free legal aid for victims and specialist training for law enforcement officers and judges.
Same-sex marriage and civil partnerships are not in the document. Ukraine’s Constitution bases marriage on the free consent of a woman and a man. That issue is tied to Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union (EU). Implementing a 2023 European Court of Human Rights ruling, which found Ukraine’s failure to recognise same-sex couples discriminatory, is one of the EU’s interim accession benchmarks.
Zelenskyy Writes LGBTQIA+ Rights Into Ukraine’s National Human Rights Strategy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a new National Human Rights Strategy that names LGBTQIA+ people as a group at heightened risk of discrimination and makes upholding their rights an official state policy goal. Decree No. 1038/2026 was signed on 12 October and took effect upon publication on 15 October.
The document lists LGBTQIA+ people alongside children, people with disabilities, war veterans, internally displaced people and national minorities as groups needing particular state attention. Its Operational Goal 14 covers preventing discrimination, hate speech and crimes motivated by intolerance, along with upholding LGBTQIA+ rights.
The strategy also names gaps in Ukrainian law. “Sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics require clearer and more consistent reflection in legislation,” it states. It singles out hate-crime laws and anti-discrimination mechanisms. Planned measures include consistent approaches to investigating hate crimes, free legal aid for victims and specialist training for law enforcement officers and judges.
Same-sex marriage and civil partnerships are not in the document. Ukraine’s Constitution bases marriage on the free consent of a woman and a man. That issue is tied to Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union (EU). Implementing a 2023 European Court of Human Rights ruling, which found Ukraine’s failure to recognise same-sex couples discriminatory, is one of the EU’s interim accession benchmarks.
“The EU condition is the introduction in Ukraine of some form of recognition of same-sex partnerships,” said Svyatoslav Sheremet, policy and legislation coordinator at the National LGBTI Consortium. “And we as a state are now at a crossroads.”
Rights group ILGA-Europe’s 2026 Rainbow Map scored Ukraine at 19%, 41st of 49 countries, with partnership recognition and hate-crime protections both stalled. Russia, which has fined Apple over so-called LGBTQIA+ propaganda posts, ranked last on 2%.
Zelenskyy has spoken on the subject before. At a cultural event in Kyiv in June, veteran Oleksandr Demenko asked him whether Ukraine needs work that normalises LGBTQIA+ topics. Zelenskyy said everything “should be discussed openly with society”, adding, “We are all here together, we are defending the state, we are the same and we have absolutely the same rights.”
What Happens Next For LGBTQIA+ Ukrainians?
The Cabinet of Ministers has six months to approve an operational plan for 2027 to 2029, with input from civil society and human rights experts. It must then report on progress to the president by 1 April each year.
Source: https://www.dnamagazine.com.au/zelensky-ukraine-human-rights-strategy-lgbtqia/
