ON FRIDAY, 16 JULY, GRAND MEETING OF THE VERKHOVNA RADA OF UKRAINE ON THE OCCASION OF THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ADOPTION OF THE DECLARATION ON STATE SOVEREIGNTY OF UKRAINE WAS HELD
In the sitting will take part: People´s Deputies of Ukraine of the first and next convocations, Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov, Government members, the Head of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Anatolii Holovin, the Head of the Supreme Court of Ukraine Vasyl Onopenko, the Head of the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine Oleksandr Paseniuk, representatives of the Church and diplomatic corps.
The speeches of the following state men are planned: Volodymyr Lytvyn, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the First President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of Second and Fifth Convocations Oleksandr Moroz and People´s Deputies of Ukraine.
Volodymyr Lytvyn, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine opened the Volodymyr Lytvyn, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, opened grand meeting of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine
The Chorus sang the State Anthem of Ukraine.
The chairman announced that on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, the President of Ukraine delivered the speech and pointed out the attention of the participants to it.
Volodymyr Lytvyn, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine delivered the Speech on Friday in the course of the Grand Sitting of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on the Occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Declaration on Sovereignty of Ukraine.
In the course of his speech during the Grand meeting of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
Volodymyr Lytvyn, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, paid special attention to the following.
Historic experience, political practice and people´s truth prove that the great events are seen from the far far away, especially, when the history of the state formation of the nations counts numerous events. Under the numerous conditions there are not so many events that are marked by the special significance and express the stages of the state and the society development.
For Ukraine such date of special significance is 16 July 1990 the day when the Verkhovna Rada of Ukrainian SSR adopted the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine. There have been a lot of political-legal documents of significant character in Ukraine for 20 years- period. Still without the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine the adoption of the entire essential for the development of our state document would be impossible.
Declaration became the first and the most significant step on the way of the development of the sovereign, independent Ukrainian state. What is even more important is that it as commenced the formation of the qualitative new period in the development and protection of human rights and liberties in Ukraine.
Our state becomes an objective reality. Moreover, the status of sovereignty was caused by whole history of Ukrainian state.
Independence was an achievement oh the Ukraine people. Politicians only managed to impalement the political-legal formulas and eternal will.
Through, the life is implacable and today among us there are no 85 creators of the Declaration on the State Sovereignty Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Let us hold a moment of silence to cherish the memory of them.
Evaluating this document after 20 years, one can better appreciate its historic significance. It became the first political act of Ukraine that proclaimed: No-to totalitarianism. Yes to the democracy, No to indifference for the human of ideology, Yes to the legal state, No the command economics, Yes to the modern economics and protection of all the forms of the property.
Adoption of the Declaration and the document itself is an example of the great professional legislative work, fortitude and personal responsibility of the Deputies.
The adoption of the Declaration was preceded by the extremely difficult discussion. The elaboration of the single revision of the Declaration on t he fundamentals of several projects was held in Parliamentary Committee on State Sovereignty, Inter-republic and international relations that consisted of the following Deputies, representatives of the divergent political powers. In particular: M. Horyn, L. Horokhivskii, M. Kosiv, V. Chervonyi, M. Bahrov, Yu. Elchenko, A. Korneev, L. Kravchuk, M. Shulha.
Thus, it was the first time, the Verkhovna Rada passed the legislative act that implemented the will of the citizens and the whole nation.
Logical continuation of this process appeared to be the adoption on 24 August 1991 of the Act on Independence of Ukraine and after the work on the compiling of the Constitution was commenced
Implementation of the principles of the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine first of all is provided by its political-moral authority as the source of the fundamentals of the Ukrainian state and the formation of its legal system.
Of course, use of the full potential of the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine depends upon the self-identification of Ukrainian people as Ukrainian political nation and on the level of the political elite.
The Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine has been preserving its status of guide in the present world for the future reality. Let me express sincere gratitude to the authors of this document the people and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine that in the year 1990 appeared on the top of its destination.
Mykola Azarov, the Prime Minster in his speech declared that the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine is a documental judicial prove f the people´s will, its vision of the independent state.
According to his words, such Declaration principles as exclusive rights of the people of Ukraine to use the national resources and the Parliament on the behalf of the people defines the principles of the power division, human liberties and rights provision, national equity and nuclear-free status pf Ukraine.
Leonid Kravchuk, the President of Ukraine 1991-1994 emphasised the special place of the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine in the process of fighting for the independence of Ukraine. "It is the first state-political document that proclaims the state sovereignty of Ukraine. In favour of the sovereignty expressed the whole state, Soviet Republic, that is a great event without the exaggeration", he declared.
L. Kravchuk expressed concern regarding the fact that the Verkhovna Rada lost its force and "is transformed into the affiliated branch of the Administration of the President of Ukraine", he declared.
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of Second and Fifth Convocations Oleksandr Moroz О.emphasised that the Declaration is a form of the sovereignty. "We had been thoroughly elaborating it in this hall. We were the creators of the history, even if the hadn´t been aware of it", he declared.
O. Moroz reminded that the fundamental principles of the Declaration are in the basis of one of the best Constitutions in Europe and called everyone "to protect the Constitution from any infringements."
In the assembly hall, the chorus sang the State Anthem of Ukraine.