10 November 2015, 10:57
Draft law No. 3044 suggests facilitation of access to free legal assistance for socially vulnerable strata of the population (including persons with minimal level of incomes, internally displaced people, participants in the anti-terrorist operation, persons provided with the status of participants in military actions), specification of the legal status and authorities of centers for provision of free secondary legal assistance (hereinafter - centers), defining at the level of legislation of the order of submission of documents confirming that a person is entitled to free secondary legal assistance.
The Committee members noted during the discussions that providing all with the right to legal assistance is not only the constitutional obligation of the State, but also execution of commitments Ukraine assumed in compliance with provisions of the General Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on Protection of Human Rights and Basic Freedoms, the International Pact on civil and political rights.
People's deputies analyzed provisions of the International Pact on civil and political rights, the Convention on Protection of Human Rights and practices of their application and noted that a person has a right to free legal assistance under two conditions: first, when a person does not have enough money to pay for services of a lawyer (financial aspect), and, second, the provision of free legal assistance is required by the interests of justice (judicial aspect). The judicial aspect of provision of free legal assistance is based on potential threat of long or life sentence; legal complexity of a case; disability of an accused person to defend oneself out of objective reasons; social and personal situation of a person who need legal assistance.
The Committee members noted that the above-mentioned provisions have been reflected in the draft law.
They also noted that provisions of the draft law have taken into consideration practices of the European Court of Human Rights regarding the right of a person entitled to free legal assistance to select a lawyer.
People's deputies also noted that the draft law also suggests providing centers with a status of legal entities of the public law.