Ukraine judicial actions draw concern from U.S, NGOs

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed into law
on July 31 a controversial bill reforming the Constitutional Court that was approved
by parliament in mid-July. He praised the “absolutely transparent” competitive
selection of judge to the court, in which every citizen has the ability to
become familiar with any candidate. Until now, the president made all the
appointments, which had to be approved by parliament. The law also allows any
citizen or company to file a complaint with the court. Critics in parliament
argued that the bill gives the court excessive authority, such as halting any
legislative norm whose constitutionality is being questioned. They also argued
that the law in essence enables the president to secure three direct
appointments

Other critics include Amnesty International and the
Kharkiv Human Rights Group, who argued that the final draft includes an
unauthorized rider, added after the parliamentary vote, that politicizes the
procedure for selecting the nation’s human rights ombudsman by changing its
selection to an open process, rather than the current secret ballot. “We call
upon you not to sign Bill #6427-D, whose text was falsified, and take under
your control the situation with the goal of not allowing the politicization of
national human rights institutions,” stated a July 21 appeal by human rights
advocates.

In a related matter, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine
published a tweet on July 31 in which it lauded “a number of strong Supreme
Court nominations, but integrity concerns of many nominees remain.” In a
subsequent tweet, it recommended that the High Council of Justice independently
review each candidate. The tweets referred to the July 27 publishment of 120
candidates that were approved by a selection process to nominate judges for
Ukraine’s Supreme Court, which consists of 48 judges and has been inactive
since the EuroMaidan. Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Centre estimated that
80% of former judges with a dubious reputation were approved by the selection
committee, whose work was nonetheless lauded by the president.

Zenon Zawada: With these latest chapters of his controversial presidency, Poroshenko
continues to pursue his policy of doing the bare minimum to satisfy the demands
of Western institutions for reform and fighting corruption. He is also pursuing
a policy of consolidating his rule and influence over key institutions, which
is beginning to show authoritarian tendencies, a view that is shared by former
Georgian President Saakashvili, who suddenly had his Ukrainian citizenship
stripped last week, and MP Serhiy Leshchenko, who works closely with Western
NGOs and EU institutions.