Adjusting the bill (Reg. No. 8507) adopted in the first reading on July 5, 2011, the committee has received proposals from 10 subjects of the right of legislative initiative.
As of August 31, 2011, the committee received 572 appeals signed by 3245 persons. All appeals have been analyzed and summarized.
The committee reports that most appeals inform about the non-acceptance on religious grounds or possible refusal from any personal electronic documents with non-contact data carrier chip, which contains data about a person, including biometric data, as the appealers consider it "a tool of automatic identification of a person and exertion of total control and manipulation", or believe that such information "can be directed against their freedom of religion, legitimate rights and interests."
The committee informed that most appeals propose that persons refusing from an electronic passport on religious grounds should be able to use a paper passport of a citizen of Ukraine.
Therefore, the appeals suggest the following amendment to the bill:
"Persons who refuse to accept electronic documents (document of a citizen of Ukraine, passport card, etc) due to their religious or other convictions, and officially report about this to the respective public authorities can use previously established forms of passport control, i.e. effective paper passport of a citizen of Ukraine."
The committee addressed the Institute of Legislation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and the Ministries of Justice and the Internal Affairs with a request to issue expert opinion on this matter. The committee will publish the opinions on its website at www.kompravlud.rada.gov.ua.