About Us
Kharkiv Regional Foundation Public Alternative is Ukrainian NGO, founded in 2005. The Foundation promotes values of inclusive democratic society, its priority activities in Ukraine and in the OSCE region.
The mission of the organization is to identify problems in the observance of human rights and discrimination and to suggest ways of solving them.
Strategic goals:
- To consolidate and strengthen mechanisms of the protection of child's rights and human rights;
- To create, strengthen, and support mechanisms of inclusion implementation in education and culture;
- To develop a culture of human rights;
- To strengthen mechanisms of protecting human rights and the rights of groups, vulnerable to discrimination in particular, through business responsibilities and enhance the credibility of justice.
Strategic priorities are:
- Anti-discrimination and promotion of inclusion;
- Child's rights;
- Human rights education;
- Business and human rights;
- Fair justice.
Our values and ethical principles:
Professionalism – we do everything with professionalism and high quality.
Teamwork – all decisions are made through discussion, taking into account the views and individuality of each team member.
Openness – we are open to new ideas, initiatives and partnerships that help us fulfill our mission.
Respect for human dignity – first of all, we see a person.
Non-discrimination – the pursuit of equality and justice in the organization of work and external activities.
The organization is governed through a General Meeting, which appoints the President and the Board.
The organization participates in a number of local, national and international coalitions and networks.
The project “Active teachers, active schools, active civil society” was implemented with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland. The organization acted as a regional partner of the “Educator” community from Lomza, Poland and created a network at the regional level among educators.
The first independent project “Right to Life: European Standards and Ukrainian Realities” was implemented with the support of the Renaissance Foundation. For the first time, living rights standards were described in the context of abortion and euthanasia.
Our project “Judicial protection of the best interests of the child and his right to upbringing in a family” implemented with the support of the project “Ukraine: Rule of Law” USAID” was the first step to discuss the concept of “Child-friendly court” and take into account family courts in Ukraine.
We became one of the organizations that launched the All-Ukrainian educational program “We Understand Human Rights”. So far, the program has had more than 1,000 graduates.
We implemented the Child-Friendly Court project with the support of the “Ukraine: Rule of Law” USAID project, which brought Ukrainian legislation in line with the European Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the results were included in the Alternative Report of NGOs to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
We carried out the “Strategic Litigation Against Disability Discrimination” project, supported by the Renaissance Foundation and trained activists to conduct strategic cases. The vast majority of cases, won in Ukraine on this topic, are their work: these are cases against networks of pharmacies, banks, insurance companies, etc.
We published a manual “Combating Discrimination on the Grounds of Disability” to identify cases of such discrimination and use the method of strategic litigation to prevent them (with the support of the Renaissance MoF).
Along with 9 other organizations, we formed the Coalition of the Rights of the Child in Ukraine. At the same time, we joined the Coalition against Discrimination.
The organization joined the International Platform for Civil Solidarity and was able to make the use of international advocacy tools more active.
“Monitoring of politically motivated court cases on the example of the Bolotnaya case in Moscow” was conducted (with the support of OSF). The project became an example of international monitoring of public organizations in political trials and solidarity.
The project “Monitoring of court decisions on protection against gender discrimination, aimed at the application of Ukrainian legislation and international instruments” was implemented (with the support of the project “Fair Justice”, USAID). We provided judges with a tool for analyzing cases with a gender component, collected examples of the best judicial proceedings dealing with gender equality issues, and identified typical problems in the court’s consideration of such cases.
We launched a new regional initiative, a festival “InclusionON”, and made the idea of inclusion a mainstream. The festival has become an annual event and is one of the significant cultural events taking place in the Kharkiv region during the year. As part of the festival, we introduce the city to innovative solutions of old problems in the field of accessibility, present experts, promote intersectoral communications of relevant organizations, and demonstrate examples of barrier-free communication. Every year the scope of the festival grows. We were partners of the unique educational project HUMRA, which uses animation in human rights education.
As a result of the “Monitoring of Anti-Semitism and Romophobia in Ukraine” (supported by EVZ, a regional partner of the Congress of National Communities), amendments to the legislation on hate speech and hate crimes were suggested.
As part of the InclusionON 2018 festival, there was a crowdfunding, which raised funds, as well as there were created and presented the first inclusive audio guides in Ukrainian and English for the Kharkiv Art Museum, which later became an example for disseminating the experience. Along with the Publicist Theater, they staged a play about child abuse, “The Dying One”, based on the play of the same name by Mariana Kianovska. In January 2019, the premiere gathered almost 300 spectators. They studied the lives of women in the east of the country through a separate mission and published an analytical report “Women and Displacement”.
As part of the project “Monitoring Ukraine’s Implementation of the Concluding Observations of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women” (supported by UN Women in Ukraine), an effective tool was created and presented to monitor the state’s compliance with its international obligations on women’s rights. We continued working on audio guides in museums and for the first time started talking to Kharkiv museums’ employees about inclusion and human rights.
The topic of gender equality in ensuring the rights of internally displaced persons was developed. We investigated the situation, trained lawyers, judges, public organizations, business and local authorities. Besides, we published a series of 6 publications on gender mainstreaming in local IDP policies and practices. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on various aspects of human rights and business commitments in this area was analyzed. We collected best practices for the introduction of inclusion in museums of Ukraine. The stories of women human rights defenders with disabilities and those working on business and human rights were presented.
- Coalition against discrimination in Ukraine
- Coalition for the Rights of the Child in Ukraine
- Co-founder of the all-Ukrainian educational program "Understanding Human Rights"
- Human Rights Education Youth Network
- International cultural and educational project HUMRA - Human Rights Animation
- Co-founder of the Civil Solidarity International Platform
- Coalition "Human Rights Initiative Group in Crimea"
1. Procurement policy
Public Alternative’s public procurement policy is based on national and international standards, principles of transparency, equal treatment and non-discrimination, fair competition and objectivity of decision-making criteria.
When conducting procurement within the project, which is implemented at the expense of grant funds, Kharkiv Regional Foundation “Public Alternative” is guided by the rules of procurement of the donor organization and the grant agreement, if they do not contradict the above-mentioned principles.
In all other cases, purchases in the amount of less than UAH 30,000 from one contractor are made on the basis of a decision of the project coordinator, the President of the organization or a person authorized by him. Procurement in the amount of more than UAH 30,000 from one contractor is made on the basis of a tender.
Tender procedure:
- The President of the organization or a person authorized by him announces the Order on the tender and the establishment of the Tender Commission, and also appoints a person responsible for collecting tender proposals.
- The Tender Commission selects a proposal from at least 3 options, based on financial feasibility, experience of cooperation with the contractor, the absence of conflicts of interest and the principles listed in the first paragraph of this Policy.
- The decision of the Tender Commission is approved by the Protocol, all results of the tender are notified of its results.
- The decision of the Tender Commission is appealed in accordance with the current legislation.
2. Prevention of conflicts of interest
Conflicts of interest and all related terms are used by the organization in accordance with the Law on Prevention of Corruption.
The president of the organization or the person authorized by him shall take measures to prevent the occurrence of a real or potential conflict of interest during procurement, conclusion of agreements and other activities of the organization.
Any member of the organization in case of detection of a conflict of interest notifies the President of the organization or his authorized person no later than the next working day.
In the presence of a conflict of interest, actions and decisions on cases related to it are not taken until its elimination.
Conflicts of interest are resolved by order of the President or his authorized person, or, in difficult cases, a meeting of the Board convened at the request of the President, within 2 days from the moment when the President or his authorized person became aware of the conflict of interests.
If the President of the organization, the person authorized by him or a member of the organization who has identified a conflict of interest, has doubts about the existence of a conflict of interest in the situation, they should seek clarification from the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption.
3. Anti-corruption policy
The organization has established practices and rules on the following issues:
- Tenders and procurement policy
- Policy to eliminate conflicts of interest during project implementation and current activities
- Democratic decision-making and conflict resolution
- Internal control over the activities and finances of the Supervisory Board
These practices are presented in the Charter of the organization and in this Strategy, or in the form of a written declaration on such practices at the request of donors.