Authors

Hanna Zaremba-Kosovych¹;  ¹ The Ethnology Institute National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ukraine

Discussion

During the Soviet times, a single concept of identity - "Soviet human" - was constructed. It was complemented by gender, age and/or professional identity. However, in no case was (self)identity constructed around belonging to a minority social group: national, ethnic, religious, or one that indicated vulnerability. This was not welcomed, it was even dangerous for a person due to the threat of persecution and harassment.

The impetus for finding identities was the organizational registration of informal associations in the Ukrainian SSR after the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1987.

Since then, national, ethnic, religious, women's organizations and organizations that united people with disabilities began to be created.

A characteristic feature of most organizations of people with disabilities was the representation of not only their identity as a person with a disability, but also the national identity. The value basis of such organizations of people with disabilities was reinforced by the relinquishment from the principles of the medical approach to disability.

The presentation will show how different identities were represented in the movement of people with disabilities and how this influenced the formation of the human rights movement itself.

Conventionally, the movement for the rights of people with disabilities in Ukraine is divided into four periods: 1) the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, 2) the 2000s and 2010s, 3) the period after the Revolution of Dignity (2013-2014), and 4) the period from the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine (from 2022).

The presentation will be based on semi-structured interviews with activists for the rights of people with disabilities in Ukraine during the above periods.