Ukraine sees no legal grounds to debar delegation to PACE from voting

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) sees no legal grounds to debar a Ukrainian delegation to PACE from voting, MFA press secretary Vasyl Kyrylych said.

He noted that a discussion between the PACE and Ukraine is not political, but legal. "However, providing of a legal assessment of the discussion between Ukraine and the PACE may reach the European Court of Human Rights," Kyrylych stressed.

The point is that a judge from Ukraine has not been appointed at the European Court of Human Rights for over two years now. Stanislav Shevchuk has been holding the position temporarily. That is why he has a judge title as ad hoc. The presence of a Ukrainian judge is obligatory, as no decision can be made on the cases of the Ukrainian citizens without his/her participation.

On the instructions of Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko, a list of candidatures for judge appointment was given to the Council of Europe on April 27, 2007. The list involved Serhiy Holovaty, Vasyl Marmazov and Hanna Yudkivska. On September 14, 2007 President Yushchenko issued a new order to revoke the previous list. On December 20, 2007 a second list was submitted to the Council of Europe involving Vasyl Marmazov, Stanislav Shevchuk and Hanna Yudkivska.

The PACE did not recognize the new list, as they had already held interviews with Serhiy Holovaty and Hanna Yudkovska. The European deputies proposed to supplement the previous list with the only one candidate, instead of Vasyl Marmazov. In view of the incident, a draft resolution was registered in the PACE to debar Ukraine from voting.

The Ukrainian issue will be considered at the PACE session on June 22-26.

UKRINFORM