BARRIER FREEDOM AS A VECTOR OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM IN THE SPHERE OF ENSURING EQUAL CITIZENS' RIGHTS

Abstract

The scientific and theoretical issues of barrier-free provision as a vector for the development of the public administration system in general and state ideology in particular have been studied. It is argued that the latter should provide for mechanisms to ensure equal rights of citizens and their unhindered access to objects of the physical environment. From this position, Chapter II "Rights, freedoms and duties of a person and a citizen" of the Constitution of Ukraine was analyzed and it was emphasized that it laid the basis for ensuring barrier-free access. In addition, by-laws aimed at detailing declarative constitutional norms, in particular, the National Strategy for the Creation of a Barrier-Free Space in Ukraine, have been researched. It was revealed that within the framework of this strategy and in the scientific and theoretical publications of the socio-legal bloc, it is proposed to distinguish such types of barrier-free access as social, economic, educational, digital, informational, physical, ecological, public (community), etc. It was noted that the adoption of this strategy was preceded by the adoption of a number of other by-laws, and for its implementation methodological recommendations, necessary for civil servants and officials of local self-government bodies during their implementation of measures to ensure barrier-free access to all spheres of state policy, were developed and implemented. It was established that Ukraine is still developing a positive management practice to ensure barrier-free and equal rights of citizens, namely: 1) in 2021, the National Strategy for the creation of a barrier-free space in Ukraine was adopted; 2) in 2021, the national government created an interdepartmental working group on the implementation of this strategy, which (the group) is headed by the Minister of Community and Territorial Development; 3) in 2022, specialists of the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development conducted an inspection of the objects of territorial communities (5 types of objects were inspected). It was found that due to the full-scale war against Ukraine, on the one hand, issues of ensuring barrier-free access and protection of citizens' rights became more relevant, and on the other hand, the means of diagnosing the level of its provision on the ground became more difficult. Taking into account such circumstances, all communities only in Chernihiv, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Kirovohrad, Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions and in the city of Kyiv participated in the monitoring of the barrier-free level. It is substantiated that with the aim of universal introduction of barrier-free access on domestic territory, it is appropriate to take into account relevant positive foreign experience. It is accepted that the most effective management practices for guaranteeing barrier-free accessibility have been developed in countries implementing socially oriented public policy, i.e. in the Scandinavian countries and Germany. It is emphasized the importance of conducting further scientific research in the field of ensuring barrier-freeness as a general state ideology of Ukraine, as well as the implementation on its territory of the philosophy of a society without restrictions, which is the basis of the rule of law, the rule of law and the sustainable development of territorial communities.