Download as a PDF file: Human Rights in Ukraine 2025 and the First Half of 2026. Constitutional human rights and the Russian-Ukrainian war (2022–2026).pdf
This analytical report by constitutional scholar Vsevolod Rechytskyi, published under the auspices of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG) in 2026, provides a critical evaluation of the state of constitutional rights and freedoms in Ukraine under the strains of hybrid conflict and full-scale war. The central thesis posits that the war exposed deep-seated structural flaws in Ukraine’s 1996 Constitution, which remains fundamentally tethered to post-Soviet collectivist paternalism, declarative welfare guarantees, and an overextended state apparatus that impedes genuine Euro-Atlantic integration.
The analysis is structured around three core dimensions:
Constitutional Doctrine and the Rule of Law: The author reviews the stalled efforts of constitutional reform initiated in 2015 to harmonize national law with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Instead of progressive liberalization, wartime governance witnessed serious erosions of constitutional principles—exemplified by presidential decrees stripping individuals of citizenship contrary to Article 25, executive centralism, and the persistent disregard for autonomous private property. Rechytskyi argues that the social contract must be fundamentally renewed, echoing initiatives like the Ukrainian Catholic University’s 2023 Constitutional Manifesto.
Intellectual and Media Freedom: The report details the sharp contraction of the public forum. Rechytskyi criticizes the 2022 Law «On Media» for embedding covert state censorship and paternalistic supervision via the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting. Blanket bans on literary titles, rigid linguistic quotas, and the exclusion of dissenting cultural works are shown to conflict with Articles 10, 15, and 34 of the Basic Law, as well as European standards of pluralism. In contrast, the adoption of the Law «On Academic Integrity» in late 2025 is highlighted as a positive alignment with Western academic values.
The Unsustainability of the «Social State»: The report examines the socio-economic crisis of Ukraine’s welfare obligations (Article 1). Facing demographic collapse, massive forced migration, and an aging population, the state has accumulated a catastrophic debt of nearly 100 billion UAH in unenforced judicial rulings on pensions. The author exposes severe systemic injustices, particularly the gulf between minimal pensions that leave citizens below the poverty line and exorbitant privileged pensions awarded to judges and security personnel.
Conclusion and Recommendations:
The author calls for an overhaul of the constitutional order: transitioning from an egalitarian, collectivist paradigm to an individualist, market-oriented democracy. Rechytskyi recommends either adopting a new Constitution or radically amending Section II, reclassifying «positive» socio-economic rights from absolute entitlements into non-justiciable programmatic policy guidelines, deregulating the economy, guaranteeing freedom of contract, and treating the Basic Law as a «living instrument» capable of supporting Ukraine’s post-war resilience and European future.
