The Bar reform did not become a response to the deterioration of the situation with the protection of human rights - Valentyn Gvozdii

The Bar reform did not become a response to the deterioration of the situation with the protection of human rights in Ukraine.

Such opinion was provided in the interview to the “Ukrainian News” agency” by the UNBA/BCU Vice-President Valentyn Gvozdii.

"The situation with observance of human rights in Ukraine is far from perfect: the Bar reform was aimed, first of all, to correct this situation, but in the end, most of the changes that have been made concern the system of advocacy self-government, as if this is the main problem and a threat to profession ", - he said.

Among the shortcomings of the reform he mentioned non-publicity and restrictions of the Bar in the right to participate in the development of amendments to the profile legislation.

"According to the international standards, the Bar should be perceived by the state as a full participant in such reform processes. This is not the privilege of the profession, but the necessity - in order the Bar could remain independent and fulfill efficiently its main mission - to protect the rights of citizens without state interference," – Valentyn Gvozdii said.

When commenting on the format of work on the law draft, UNBA Deputy President, as a member of the Working Group under the Council on Judicial Reform, noted that the draft law version different from the one discussed in the circle of the experts can be submitted to the parliament.

Evaluation by the Venice commission is an acceptable way to correct the shortcomings of the content of the document.

"In the dialogue with the representatives of the Council of Europe, the Special Adviser of the Secretary General visited Ukraine recently, we discussed the possibility of sending the law draft to the Venice Commission. This way we will get an authoritative and professional evaluation for compliance with the European standards. To our opinion it is important to get it before submission of the law draft to the parliament in order to avoid scandal, as with the project on the Anti-Corruption Court.

Also, a number of provisions of the draft law contain corruption risks, which generally conducts reform in the opposite direction from its goals," -Valenyin Gvozdii underlined.

He recalled that the National Association provided the SSR with the alternative provisions for the whole blocks of the draft law on the practice of law on the basis of a stable model of self-government, as well as a package of amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code and the Tax Code. Please follow the link to find the full text of the interview of UNBA/BCU Vice-President.