Committees round-up: Daily
17 September 2019, 15:30
There is / body in focus of our committee scan today:
Committee on Human Rights, Deoccupation and Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories in Donetsk, Luhansk Regions and Autonomous Republic of Crimea, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations
The сommittee is going to have field meetings in Kramatorsk and Sievierodonetsk in October 2019.
The agenda of the second session of the Verkhovna Rada includes nine draft bills that were adopted on the first reading by the previous parliament, and there are 14 days to amend them, so they will be considered by the committee after this deadline.
The committeemen saw into the draft bill No.2056 “On amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On free legal aid” regarding ensuring the right of persons illegally deprived of their personal liberty to free secondary legal aid”.
According to the draft bill, this right shall be exercised through creation of a legal mechanism to compensate the deprived persons for the cost of providing them a free secondary legal aid, and granting foreign lawyers the right to provide the said persons with free secondary legal aid. The draft law is seen to introduce appropriate amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On free legal aid”.
The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denysova participated in the discussion and expressed her support to this draft law. During the meeting, a representative of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons asked to support the draft law in question as well. The Committee recommended that the draft law be accepted on the first reading.
The committee also considered the draft law No.2015 "On amendments to Article 14 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On free legal aid’ (concerning residents of the temporarily occupied territories)". The purpose of the bill is to provide access to free secondary legal aid for citizens of Ukraine who reside in the temporarily occupied territories in order to effectively protect their rights and legitimate interests.
The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights and the representative of the above ministry requested the parliamentarians to support the bill as a basis with some further amendments. The сommittee has decided to support the proposed bill and to ask the line committee to recommend the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to adopt the bill on the first reading.
During the meeting, there was also agreed a preliminary programme of the stay and the field meetings scheduled: for October 22-23 – in Kramatorsk (the Donetsk Oblast (region)) and October 24-25 – for Sievierodonetsk (the Luhansk Oblast (region)).
The committeemen approved the committee's work plan for the second session. In particular, the committee proposes to hold the Human Rights Day at the Verkhovna Rada on December 4 and an additional field meeting in Kherson in November.
At the meeting, there were approved the staffing for the committee’s subcommittees as well as the list of freelance consultants involved.