Liberal Democratic League of Ukraine

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Liberal Democratic League of Ukraine Ліберально-демократична ліга України (ЛДЛУ)
President
Vice President	Yevheniia Shulha
Secretary	Roman Leuta
Founded	06 May 2015
Headquarters	Kiev, Ukraine
Ideology	Liberal Democracy, Right-Liberalism
International affiliation	International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY)
European affiliation	European Liberal Youth (LYMEC)
Website	https://ldlu.org.ua/

Liberal Democratic League of Ukraine (LDLU) is a non-governmental and nonprofit organization that is composed of the representatives of a new generation of Ukrainian youth, which aim at building and developing the liberal democracy in Ukraine.^[1]

History[]

The organization was established on 6 May 2015 by joint initiative of the students of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Being headquartered in Kiev, Ukraine, the League still provides a solid ground for a direct cooperation between all of its members, which are students of the leading Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch as well as British universities. Those students are young lawyers, political scientists, international affairs experts, sociologists, economists etc.

During 2015–2016, the organization's activities spread to Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, Odessa, and others. In addition, the organization is represented in Poland (Warsaw, Kraków), the Netherlands (Groningen), Sweden (Lund), Germany (Berlin), the United Kingdom (London), Portugal (Lisbon), France (Paris), India (New Delhi). At the beginning of 2016 the organization has applied to the International Federation of Liberal Youth.^[2]

In June 2017, the organization gained full membership in the International Federation of Liberal Youth.^[3] In October of that year, the organization became an associate member of the European Liberal Youth, which is the youth wing the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party. ^[4]

In September 2017, a memorandum of cooperation between the organization and the largest Lithuanian liberal organization, the Lithuanian Liberal Youth, was signed.

Purpose and Objectives[]

The main purposes of the Liberal Democratic League of Ukraine are the preservation and distribution of fundamental human rights and freedoms, including their social, economic and cultural aspirations and interests. For these ends the organization aims:^[5]

• to develop and equally distribute liberal democratic ideas;
• to unite Ukrainian youth with liberal outlook, who strive to see Ukraine as a strong and progressive liberal democratic state;
• to take effective collective measures to protect the fundamental human rights and freedoms;
• to foster the liberalization of the Ukrainian law;
• to improve Ukrainian legislation by preparing projects of regulations, providing scientific and legal opinions, examination in all branches of the law, conducting political and social research;
• to achieve fruitful cooperation with the new generation of patriotically minded Ukrainians;
• to develop international cooperation with liberal, democratic and liberal democratic organizations and associations from different countries.
• to popularize Ukrainian history, culture and traditions both regionally and internationally;
• to practice public control over the processes of adoption of laws as well as challenging the accountability of the Ukrainian government.

Its members also look forward to establishing a liberal democratic political party based on the values and objectives of the Liberal Democratic League of Ukraine in the nearest future.

Ideology and concepts[]

According to the Charter of the Liberal Democratic League of Ukraine, the Manifesto of the organization involves the following principles:

• The liberty of one citizen ends where the liberty of another citizen begins;
• Personal responsibility for own deeds and actions is the basis for the successful and progressive society;
• Individuals agreed to surrender some of their freedoms and submit them to the authorities in exchange for protection of their remaining rights. Thus a state serves as an instrument for the successful realization of the aspirations and goals of its citizens;
• Market economy and private property have proved to be the best means to earn capital and build wealth, therefore a laissez-faire practice is sine qua non in domestic affairs.
• The right to life, liberty and security of people along with the personal happiness of each are the main values, which must be promoted and protected.
• Apart from the aforementioned ideas, the very framework of the organization is based on the principle that Ukrainian people can live in prosperity provided that the political power is exercised by young yet matured Ukrainians, which were born in an independent Ukraine.

Furthermore, an international activity of the organization is carried out in accordance with the principle that "Ukraine is not only Europe, but also the whole world".^[6]

Structure[]

In order to embody these objectives, the organization has a unique internal structure, which corresponds with all main trends of the LDLU. The organization is composed of different Departments, which in turn are subdivided into Sectors. As of August 2016, the key Departments of the Liberal Democratic League of Ukraine are as follows:

• Liberal Democracy Department
• Human Rights Department
• Education and Youth Department
• Domestic affairs Department
• Foreign affairs Department
• Law Department
• Sociology, Analyses and Prognoses Department
• PR-Department
• HR-Department

The Viche[]

The Liberal Democratic League of Ukraine Viche is the principal organ of the organization that comprises all members. Every member has one vote and nobody has the right of veto. It is the Viche, which is in charge of making all core decisions.

The Council[]

There is also a Council of the LDLU, which is another decisive organ responsible for making decisions in between the sessions of the LDLU Viche.

As of the year 2018 the Council consists of:^[7]

• – the President of the Organization;
• – the Vice President of the Organization;
• – the Head of the Secretariat of the Organization;
• – the Head of the Liberal Democracy Department;
• – the Head of the Human Rights Department;
• – the Head of the Foreign affairs department;
• – the Head of the Domestic affairs department;
• – the Head of the Education and Youth Department;
• – the Head of the PR-Department;
• – the Head of the HR-Department;
• – the Advisor to the President;

Activity of the organization[]

Public liberal enlightenment[]

The project was introduced to conduct classes and lections dedicated to liberalism, which are believed to spread liberal seeds among students. The program of lections is made up of topics dedicated to protection of the fundamental human rights and freedoms, strengthening the rule of law, pluralism, coherent society and liberal democracy. The project was introduced in the Ukrainian Humanities Lyceum, Kiev, in winter 2015. Both the school's administration and students warmly welcomed the idea of program. The LDLU is about to run the same projects in other schools of the Ukrainian capital.^[8]

In 2017, the list of schools where the project was held enriched by Gymnasium No. 59 named after Alexander Boychenko, Lyceum "Naukova zmina", secondary school No. 78 (Kiev), etc.

Lessons in Dissent in Ukraine[]

The Liberal Democratic League of Ukraine was among very few Ukrainian organizations, which supported the Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong in 2014. Being inspired by the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong, the representatives of the LDLU have contacted , a producer and expert in Hong Kong politics. He showed his interest and even supported the idea of a project aiming to show his Lessons in Dissent movie in Ukraine.

Matthew Torn also gave an exclusive interview, in which he expressed his respect to and admiration of young Ukrainians, which do their best in fighting kleptocracy. Notably, the actions of governments of both the European Union and the United States were said to be very weak in solving the Ukrainian crisis, hence were even criticized by Matthew Torn.^[9]

Meanwhile, in his conversation with , who is the President of the Liberal Democratic League of Ukraine, the leader of the Umbrella Revolution Joshua Wong for the first time commented the political situation in Ukraine by supporting the Ukrainian struggle against both internal and external enemies.^[10]

The premiere of Lessons in Dissent in Ukraine took place on 25 April 2016 in Kiev,^[11] and next day in Lviv.^[12]

Inclusive friendly[]

Disabled people in Ukraine face a number of problems in all main spheres of social life, as the Ukrainian authorities do nothing in order to improve the standards of life for people with disabilities, which eventually have to spend their free time at home. Inclusive friendly project was introduced to conduct a number of trainings designed for the staff of Ukrainian catering industry in order to teach them to serve disabled people professionally, so that these people can enjoy spending more time out in an appropriate environment. The project is being successfully practiced in Lviv, where local catering workers have a chance to gain professional skills from experienced trainers.^[13][14]

World policy[]

LDLU became the first organization in Ukraine that established contacts with leaders of the Umbrella Movement, namely, with Joshua Wong^[15] and 21 deputies of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, Nathan Law and Baggio Leung^[16] activists , Alex Chow, Derek Lam and other members of party Demosistō. The aim of the cooperation to provide information about the Ukrainian political situation in Hong Kong and inform Ukrainians about the Hong Kong political crisis of 2014–2017.

One of the organization work sphere was disclosure of the truth about the junta's crimes in Thailand and the Prayuth Chan-ocha regime. To this end, for the first time the representative of the Transparency International Tanakorn Chun told for the Ukrainians about the current situation in Thailand after the abolition of the democratic regime. Also, in the framework of the direction, the leader of mass student uprisings in Thailand, Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal ^[17] was interviewed for European readers.

The organization also hosted a meeting with Mr. , India's Ambassador in Ukraine.

At the end of the year, the organization covered the work of New Zealand Young Nationals by interviewing the vice president of the youth wing of the ruling New Zealand party.

Since 2015, the organization has established strong relationships with political parties and public movements that have become the basis of the Umbrella Movement. Arthur Kharytonov, the president of the organization won the competition of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats in 2017 and represented Ukraine at the World Liberal Forum in Hong Kong.^[18] After his meetings with leaders of mass protests in 2014, the organization decided to create a "" movement with the purpose to highlighting Hong Kong's political processes and disclosing offenses by the Government of the People's Republic of China.

In October 2017, members of the organization and activists went into an unprecedented protests opposite the Chinese embassy in Ukraine with demand to release the leaders of the Umbrella Movement, Joshua Wong, Nathan Law, Alex Chow and others from the Hong Kong prisons. The action was supported by the Amnesty International team in Ukraine and Hong Kong. The protest has attracted much attention from Asian media, including the main Hong Kong opposition newspaper .^[19][20]

Liberal democracy school[]

The project became part of the "Liberal Education" launched by the organization in 2015. The principal goal of the project is to conduct free Saturday lectures devoted to the fundamental issues of liberal democracy: the rights and freedoms of man and citizen, elections, constitutionalism and parliamentarism. The speakers of the "School of Liberal Democracy" in various times were: Mikhail Vynnytsky, Irina Troyan, Andriy Kruglashov, and others like that.

Social Movement "Captives"[]

The project is focused on liberation of Ukrainian political prisoners from Russian prisons and assistance to families affected by the occupation of the Ukrainian Crimea. Within project framework, A series of events were held to inform the public about the condition of political prisoners within project, where Gennady Afanasyev took part (one of the Crimean political prisoners held in Russia). In February 2017 on the Day of Resistance, the "Captives" initiated March of Solidarity. Crimea – UA.^[21]

In the May 2017 the organization presented «Charity auction of dates», as a result collected UAH 10,000 to support the families of political prisoners in Crimea. «Charity auction of dates» aimed to draw public attention to the plight of political prisoners who are on the peninsula or were transferred to Russia.^[22]

References[]

External links[]

• Liberal Democratic League of Ukraine on Facebook
• Liberal Democratic League of Ukraine on Twitter
• Liberal Democratic League of Ukraine on Instagram
• LDLU on YouTube