There are /// bodies in focus of our committee scan today:
Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations
The committee head Hryhorii Nemyria held today a meeting with the delegation of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The parties discussed the observance of human rights and freedoms in Ukraine and bilateral cooperation between the Human Rights Committee and the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
Hryhorii Nemyria informed his interlocutors about the bills at issue in the committee, and announced the committee hearings scheduled for today – “Progress in implementation of the National Human Rights Strategy for protection of the rights of internally displaced persons and persons residing in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, the release of hostages and the restoration of their rights”.
The UN delegation consisted of:
Jose Maria Aranaz, head of OHCHR America, Europe and Central Asia Unit;
Polina Levina Mahnad, Human Rights Officer, UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, OHCHR at United Nations, America, Europe and Central Asia Unit;
Fiona Frazer, Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
Committee on Foreign Affairs
The committeemen, headed by the committee head Hanna Hopko, met on April 18 with the delegation of the Turkish Grand National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee led by Volkan Bozkir, the Chairman. During the meeting, the parties exchanged their views on a wide range of topical issues of bilateral relations in all sectors, including inter-parliamentary cooperation. Particular attention was paid to the deliberations on regional and world security issues.
In particular, the parties emphasized the need to restore the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, ensuring observance of the human and national minorities’ rights in the Crimea temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation.
In the context of organizing a forthcoming visit of Ukrainian parliamentarians to Turkey, the parties have ascertained a high level of the inter-parliamentary cooperation and highlighted the importance of further development and expansion of inter-parliamentary dialogue at all levels.
Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations
The committee held hearings on implementation of the National Human Rights Strategy regarding protection of the rights of internally displaced persons, persons residing in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, the release of hostages and restoration of their rights, being asked to do so by the Helsinki Human Rights Union and the like.
After much deliberation, there were highlighted the problems in protecting the rights and freedoms of these categories of the Ukrainians, and observed that the Government of Ukraine has been trying to keep itself aloof from the IDP issues in terms of legislation, pursuing discriminatory policies against these people.
Hryhorii Nemyria said that he repeatedly raised this issue at the meetings of the Conciliation Board of Parliament and was forced to appeal to the European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn with a request to urge putting the bill No.6692 on the order of the day of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
In his reply, the European Commissioner emphasized that the EU pays particular attention to the human rights situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as to the humanitarian situation along, in particular, the red line and the temporarily uncontrolled territories. And this is to include the pension payments. In this regard, the EU does support the calls for immediate resolving the pressing issues.
It was also stated, that the pension payments to internally displaced persons are under control of the Ministry of Social Policy, which does heed to criticism in this area from international and non-governmental organizations.
The Ukrainian ombudswoman Liudmyla Denisova stressed that "forced migrants should enjoy the same rights and freedoms as other Ukrainian citizens”, and called for abolition of the discriminatory government decisions regarding forced migrants.
In the course of the hearings, there were also discussed the housing problems of internally displaced persons. In this regard, Nataliia Veselova, MP, noted that at present 90% of internally displaced persons have housing problems and need assistance from the state.
There were also discussed the release of hostages and provision of medical, psychological and financial assistance from the state (up to UAH 100 thousand).
One of the UN representatives in Ukraine called on the Government of Ukraine to speed up adoption of the resolution streamlining the work of the security checkpoints, while the Parliament - to adopt the bill on humanitarian demining.
The Executive Director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Oleksandr Pavlichenko thanked the committee for the hearings and called on to be guided by the priority of problems when making changes to the National Strategy.
"There has to be a political will to address existing problems, and not to talk about the lack of mechanisms. People in the uncontrolled territories should feel citizens of Ukraine," he said.
The hearings were attended by representatives of the government, members of parliament, representatives of civil society organizations and experts.
Committee on Rules of Parliamentary Procedure and Support to Work of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
At a regular meeting, the committee considered a number of bills at issue.
The list as follows:
- a draft parliamentary resolution No.8056 on the speaker’s reporting about the progress in execution of parliamentary errands, as well as of his office duties determined by the Constitution of Ukraine and the Rules of Parliamentary Procedure;
- a draft parliamentary resolution No.7478 on making public emoluments paid to ministers, parliamentarians, heads of central executive bodies and state-run enterprises;
- a draft bill No.8234 amending certain laws of Ukraine regarding prevention of procedural violations when altering the Constitution of Ukraine, instituting an all-Ukrainian plebiscite, passing laws;
- a draft schedule of the committee’s meetings in May 2018.
After much deliberation, the committee has approved the appropriate conclusions.