09 December 2015, 19:08
Today at their meeting, the Committee members finalized the Law "On amendments to some laws of Ukraine concerning strengthening of the guarantees of ensuring of the rights and freedoms of internally displaced persons" (draft law No.2166) taking into account the remarks of the President of Ukraine, and recommended the Verkhovna Rada adopt it as a whole on Thursday.
"Our duty is to ensure protection of the rights and freedoms of our citizens. Internally displaced persons have not moved to other countries, but remained in Ukraine. The President submitted his proposals, having not vetoed the law. He understands that it concerns the rights and freedoms of nearly 2 million forced migrants. We must support the compromise option with account of the President's suggestions and examine draft law No. 2166 on Thursday at a plenary meeting of the Parliament," said the Chairperson of the Committee Hryhorii Nemyria.
"It is important that even on Thursday the Parliament be able to consider this extremely important draft law. We have no time to waste," said the Committee member Yuliya Tymoshenko.
As is known, on November 25 President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko returned to the Verkhovna Rada the Law "On amendments to certain laws of Ukraine concerning strengthening of the guarantees of ensuring of the rights and freedoms of internally displaced persons" No.2166 with his proposals.
"The President considers the draft law No. 2166 very important and necessary. But it was decided to send it to the Parliament for the repeated consideration with regard to the proposals of the President for settling certain discrepancies," said Serhii Kovalenko, a representative of the Presidential Administration.
"The purpose of the draft law is to protect the rights and freedoms of internally displaced persons. And it finally should be done," said the head of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union's advocacy center Borys Zakharov.
"Internally displaced persons are the citizens of Ukraine and they shall enjoy the same rights and freedoms as other citizens of our country," said representative of the NGO "Right to Protection" Olena Vynohradova.
"On behalf of the NGO and as a person displaced from Crimea I can say that many internally displaced persons are waiting for approval of this law because it contains provisions that normalize the legislation of Ukraine in this sphere. These proposals to the law are only postponing the date from which the people will be able to benefit from its advantages," said Vostok SOS NGO's representative. "We are against any checks of the place of residence of internally displaced persons. This is a violation of our rights and freedoms."
Reference information:
Draft law No. 2166 was submitted to the Parliament on February 18, 2015 (finalized and re-registered on March 13, 2015).
The draft law was elaborated by the team of authors composed of people's deputies of Ukraine, experts on the protection of the right of internally displaced persons, human rights organizations and experts of international organizations, in particular, Right to Protection ACF, "Advocacy and monitoring of internal displacement in Ukraine," Civil Initiative Vostok SOS, Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, Civil Initiative KrymSOS, Center of Civic Education "Almenda," Expert Council under the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and UNHCR.
The draft law was three times included in the agenda of plenary sessions of the Parliament, but was ignored twice and only after extensive advocacy work by the Committee on Human Rights and NGOs the draft law was submitted for the consideration on May 19, 2015, and was adopted in the first reading with 242 votes of people's deputies.
The Committee on Human Rights immediately began preparing the draft law for the second reading and as far back as on June 17, 2015 it was decided to recommend the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopt the draft law in the second reading.
However, despite large-scale advocacy work, the draft law for almost five months had not been submitted for the second reading.
Only in late October after numerous calls of the Chairperson and members of the Committee on Human Rights and the public they managed to convince the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to examine this legislative initiative in its second reading and, finally, by 243 votes of people's deputies the draft law No. 2166 was adopted as a whole and sent to the President for signing.