Ukrainian parliament suggests Ukraine receding from Convention on Human Rights

On April 30, a draft resolution was submitted to the Supreme Rada on Ukraine receding from the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights and the European Social Charter, the website of the Ukrainian parliament informs.

Initiators of the move are MPs Oksana Syroyid, Olena Sotnyk, Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze, Leonid Yemets, Anna Hopko, Viktor Vovk, Ostap Semerak and Boryslav Bereza. As they state in the explanatory note to the bill, “the anti-terror operation in several districts of Donetsk and Lugansk regions caused by the armed aggression of the Russian Federation and actions of terror groups supported by the Russian Federation was followed by Ukraine Supreme Rada passing laws that in their nature contradict Ukraine’s obligations under the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights and the European Social Charter (revised)”.

In this connection, the MPs suggest that Ukraine recedes its obligations for some time: in the territory of the anti-terror operation because of “the objective need to take actions to rebuff Russia’s armed aggression, Ukraine needs to recede from the obligations temporarily”.

“The goal of the resolution is to give a legal basis for the Ukrainian government via the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to inform secretaries general of the UN and the Council of Europe on measures taken by Ukraine due to the need to rebuff the armed aggression,” say the authors of the initiative.

“The parliament as the representative body can recognize the fact and the volume of Ukraine’s recession from its obligations under international human rights treaties,” the Ukrainian MPs elaborate.