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“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛЮТИЙ 2010 19 OUR LIFE Monthly, published by Ukrainian National Women’s League of America Vol. LXVI I FEBRUARY 2010 SHARING THOUGHTS, VIEWS, & NEWS As this issue of Our Life goes to print, and according to all pre - election political predictions, the Ukrainian people will be preparing for a run - off ballot to be held in Febru ary. Once again, we in the diaspora, will be awaiting the results with much anticipation. During the 2004 Orange Revolution, nationwide protests caused the results of the original run - off to be annulled and a revote was ordered by Ukraine’s Supreme Court. Many of us huddled around computers and radios to read and hear news about the recount. We cheered when the second run - off, conducted under intense scrutiny by domestic and international observers, was declared “fair and free.” In the end, the voices of th e people were heard, and Viktor Yushchenko was proclaimed the official winner. With his inauguration, held in Kyiv on January 25, 2005, the Orange Revolution ended. One of the most critical ways that individuals can influence a government is through votin g. The integral role that transparent and open elections play in ensuring the fundamental rights of citizens to a “participatory” government are clearly outlined in the “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” which was unanimously adopted by the Unite d Nations General Assembly in 1948. The role of such free elections in ensuring respect for a citizen’s political and human rights is also the backbone of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention for the Protecti on of Human Rights. While this right to vote is widely recognized as a fundamental human right, this right is not fully enforced for millions of people around the world. In all too many countries, governments struggle to meet the challenge of the Universal Declaration related to free and fair elections. In order to help ensure this process takes place during the elections in Ukraine this year, Ukrainian umbrella organizations (for instance, the World Congress of Ukrainians) have organized election - monitorin g groups. While the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America is an apolitical organization as defined by its by - laws (meaning that we cannot endorse a specific candidate), we obviously stand by these fundamental principles. Much has been accomplished i n Ukraine in the past five years. Clearly, much has yet to be accomplished. We have witnessed steps that have led to the resurgence of Ukraine’s national pride, prodigious efforts to fill in the blank pages of the country’s bittersweet history to Ukraine’s people, a new - found pride in the country’s magnificent culture and heritage, and a new understanding and appreciation of the heroes of its political past. This progress has occurred because the citizens of Ukraine made themselves heard through their votes , as well as by their protests on the Maidan in Kyiv. But Ukraine now finds itself at a critical point in its development as a sovereign state as reintegration into the Soviet sphere is a very real threat. The UNWLA has written to Lila Hryhorovych, Preside nt of Soyuz Ukrainok Ukrainy, encouraging its members to exercise their right to vote, to make themselves heard, and discouraging the very real dangers posed by apathy. The will of the people of Ukraine must be heard , for it is the people who will define t he country’s future. As we often acknowledge and write about in Our Life, the road to the Orange Revolution was paved with many years of personal commitment and sacrifices of those who resisted the Soviet system. 2010 marks the 40 th anniversary of the dea th of one of these individuals — Alla Horska. As Dr. Natalia Pazuniak observed in her biographical notes on the life Alla Horska in The Contemporary Ukrainian Woman: Her Role in the Resistance Movement (1977), “ . . . The post - Stalin period, specifically the beginning of the 1960s, was marked by a renewed desire for freedom among the young generation. This attitude emerged, a phoenix of the past’s ashes, among the so - called Shestydesiatnyky (The Sixtiers),” a group of writers and poets who defied the regime’s dictates that literature must conform to state - approved socialist realism. Many artists of the time, Horska among them, followed suit. Horska, who was born in 1929 in Yalta, was a graduate of the Kyiv Fine Arts Institute and specialized in painting. Not ra ised Ukrainian, she came to realize her own identity as she matured. At that time, she began
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