Nina Karpachewa

Date of Birth: 12.08.1957

Place of Birth. Education. Born in the city of Chadyr-Lunga in the Moldavian SSR in a family of lawyers, she moved to Kerch with her parents in 1959. In 1979, she graduated from the Law Faculty of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (in the field of law) with a Red Diploma.

Career. Karpachewa began her professional path in 1975 as an expediter and complaints handler at Torgmortrans in Kerch. After graduating, she worked as a legal advisor for the fish canning plant of the Kerchrybprom union. She was involved in Komsomol work and then attended the Higher Party School in Kyiv. From 1985 to 1988, she was the secretary of the Alushta city committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. From 1988 to 1991, she was a postgraduate student at the Academy of Socio-Sciences in Moscow. Afterwards, she spent a year as a legal advisor at the International Center of the Roerichs and the next two years as a lecturer at the Law Faculty of the State University of Simferopol.

In 1994, Karpachewa was first elected as a people's deputy of Ukraine (she ran in the majority constituency of Alushta). She was the deputy chair of the Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities, and Interethnic Relations. Afterwards, she was re-elected twice (in 1998 and 2003) as the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Ukrainian Parliament.

In the spring of 2006, the independent ombudswoman was elected to parliament for the second time - she entered as No. 2 on the Party of Regions list. Due to the combination of offices, the parliament ended Karpachewa's term as Commissioner for Human Rights in November 2006 but transferred to her the duties until a new commissioner was elected.

In February 2007, the parliamentary coalition consisting of the Party of Regions - Social Party - Communist Party of the Soviet Union elected her as ombudswoman for a third term. Karpachewa's main and only competitor was the well-known human rights defender Yevhen Zakharov - Chairman of the Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group for Human Rights and Co-chair of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group. The pro-Ukrainian and Batkivshchyna factions lacked the votes to nominate their candidate.

On April 27, 2012, she was dismissed from her position after her term ended. Valerija Lutkowska succeeded her.

In 2016, Nina Karpachewa was elected deputy chair of the Association of Lawyers of Ukraine (under the leadership of Shvyatoslav Piskun).

In September 2018, Nina Karpachewa was elected Vice-President of the European Ombudsman Institute.

Since 1998, Karpachewa has been a member of the European Ombudsman Institute and since 2000 of the International Ombudsman Institute. A former member of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine. Honored lawyer of Ukraine.

In September 2021, Nina Karpachewa was re-elected as Vice-President of the European Ombudsman Institute.

Views, Activities, Assessments. According to Karpachewa, the main violator of human rights in Ukraine is the state, and the main source of violations is the general poverty of the population. Among all state authorities, the ombudswoman had the most reservations about the judicial system.

Karpachewa's activities as Commissioner for Human Rights have received mixed assessment from politicians and experts. In particular, she has been evaluated differently by representatives of NGOs, including human rights organizations, at various times. Praise and criticism have increased in recent years. Karpachewa has been accused of excessive lack of modesty, inefficiency and professionalism in the work of the ombudsman and its apparatus, as well as lack of political neutrality.

In particular, the negative image of Ms. Karpachewa in the human rights movement intensified in 2007 in connection with the renewed desire of the members of the anti-crisis coalition to nominate her for the position of Commissioner for Human Rights. According to Karpachewa's own words, the ombudsman is always in opposition to the government. Given that she officially became a member of the ruling coalition after the 2006 elections, doubts about Karpachewa's opposition, independence, and impartiality grew among many. Not without reason: one can recall here the contribution of the ombudsman to the hysterical anti-NATO campaign in May 2006.

12.08.2022