During her speech at the Conciliation Board sitting on Monday, the First Deputy Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Iryna Herashchenko proposed to vote that the parliamentary immunity be withdrawn this very week.
She noted that Volodymyr Zelenskyi's inaugural speech in the Verkhovna Rada had some legislative inconsistencies: "The President first urged the Verkhovna Rada to immediately pass the law on the abolition of parliamentary immunity, and, however, he then declared a parliament dissolution norm which is against the constitution".
The politician stressed she does support the initiative to publish the verbatim transcripts of the consultations in order "to enable the entire country to see who did stand for closed lists, for an imperative mandate, and who objected on the merits strongly".
Iryna Herashchenko also observed that the Ukrainian Parliament should first of all consider a draft bill amending the laws concerning general military duty and military service.
Another key bill was offered by her for the current agenda – a draft law of the essence for the implementation of the Association Agreement – a bill on the EU-Ukraine Association Council’s decision on amendments and additions to the Annex XXVII to the said association agreement.
Afterwards, the reporter informed the participants that on May 24, together with the SBU and the Minsk TCG’s humanitarian subgroup officials, she met with the President of Ukraine to discuss the release of hostages. "I want to emphasize that the President Poroshenko’s team has done a lot in this direction, and I also want to thank the Parliament, which has always supported all issues relating to the release of hostages. We have once again stressed that we are ready to convey all information in order for the new government to move further," said Iryna Herashchenko.
The First Deputy Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine underlined that there are seven bills at the Parliament concerning hostages and political prisoners; as well as the government-drafted bill No. 9438 in addition, which amends Ukraine’s criminal code to the extent of the definition for war criminals. Iryna Herashchenko offered it to put them en block and consider this cluster in the very near future.
In conclusion, I. Herashchenko greeted the news that on May 25, the United Nations International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ordered Russia to release the captured Ukrainian sailors: "The decision in favour of Ukraine was adopted near unanimously by the best judges and international experts. We demand that Putin and the Russian Federation immediately release our sailors, our maritime vehicles. We emphasize that the world has recognized the full right of Ukraine to utilize its neutral waters".
Yet another bill was proposed by the first vice-speaker to be put on the agenda. This was a draft law amending Ukraine’s code of administrative offenses with respect to implementing the European Court of Human Rights’ decisions, which is drafted to strengthen the right of Ukrainian citizens to peaceful protest.
"We are convinced that the newly elected President will sign all the laws that will be democratically adopted by the Ukrainian Parliament," concluded Iryna Herashchenko.