23.3% of Ukrainians believe only mass media could defend their rights

23.3% of Ukrainians polled believe that resorting to the mass media is the most effective way to defend human rights in Ukraine. This is evidenced by a study by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, as Interfax-Ukraine reported.

In particular, when asked whether there were situations when the rights of respondents or their relatives were violated, 8.8% answered that they were constantly violated, 20% said the violations sometimes occurred, 19% said the violations happened sporadically (once or twice), 35, 9% said that no violations occurred, and 16.4% remained indecisive.

At the same time, only 19.3% of respondents said that they tried to protect their rights, but without success, 40.7% said they had been trying to defend themselves, but mostly these  attempts were in vain, and 40% said they did not try to protect their rights.

As to defense of human rights in Ukraine, 23.3% persons in the survey considered the most effective way was to appeal to the mass media, 20.9% said the best was to seize the court, 19.6% said one needed to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, 16% said one needed to appeal to relatives and search for the necessary acquaintances, 15.4% said the best was to contact the police, 14.3% preferred to appeal to the prosecutor's office, 13.1% said it would be better to appeal to several international organizations, 12.8% preferred to appeal to lawyers, 3.7% preferred to solve everything on their own forces, in particular with the use of weapons, if necessary, and 21.5% believed that there was no way to protect their rights.

The study was conducted from October 6 to 19, 2020 by the ZMINA Center for Human Rights and the Ilko Kucheriv Foundation for Democratic Initiatives with the support of the Human Rights for Ukraine project, implemented by UNDP in Ukraine and funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The survey was conducted in all regions of Ukraine, except for territories not controlled by the government. In total, 2002 respondents were interviewed in person. The statistical sampling error did not exceed 2.2%.