The draft law №9055 leaves the Bar with no instruments for protection of human rights — Valentyn Gvozdii

The draft law № 9055 «On the Bar and Advocacy» leaves the people with no instruments for protection of their rights and access to professional legal assistance.

This is stated by the Deputy Head of UNBA Valentyn Gvozii in an interview for governmental channel «Rada».

«The bar should protect human rights, freedoms and legitimate interests, however, the draft law does everything to leave us with no instruments for the protection», - he said.

The Deputy Head of UNBA also said that the UNBA had addressed people’s deputies and committees of Verkhovna Rada with letters explaining potential legal risks and corruption «back-doors» of the new edition or relevant Law submitted to the Parliament.

These letters reflect the position of both supreme bar self-government bodies and regional bar councils.

«We work on raising awareness in society. Almost without exception the Bar Councils of the regions publicly criticized the draft law in their decisions. Bar Council of Ukraine has also addressed both the President and the Parliament urging to refrain from adopting the draft law», - noted Valentyn Gvozdii.

Along with that, UNBA will welcome the decisions of the Parliament Committees to submit the draft law for consideration to the Venice Commission. The existing law on advocacy was reviewed thereof back in 2012 before its adoption in the frames of preparation for signing the Association Agreement with the EU.

«We will appreciate the decision to submit the draft law for evaluation by international institutions. The decision is to be made by the relevant committee of Verkhovna Rada», - said the Deputy Head of UNBA.

According to him, the draft law is inconsistent with the goals of judicial reform that provides for strengthening of the bar as the only self-government professional organization and further strengthening of the principle of rule of law.

«There is no reason why Ukraine, moving to the rule of law, can allow the introduction of such totalitarian norms in its national legislation and allows realization of unscrupulous attempts to usurp advocacy by some individuals in legislative process" - said the Deputy Head of UNBA.

«The draft law № 9055 provoked a huge resistance from the bar community, public organizations, activists and civilians as, in fact, the mechanisms of control of advocacy, pressure on the bar and prosecution of citizens are to be presented as if they were good intentions», — considers Valentyn Gvozdii.

Because of inadmissibility of the content and objectives of the draft law there appeared alternative draft laws submitted by different fractions and non-sectarian people’s deputies under registration numbers 9055-1 and 9055-2.

«The alternative draft law are crucially different as they were cleared out of the restrictions on human rights and rights of a defender, negative effects aimed at the destruction of the institutional strength of the bar. The adoption of these draft laws would allow to avoid institutional stress, when the draft law 9055 provides for the mechanisms that would ruin the bar as self-governed institution from the inside», - commented Valentyn Gvozdii.

The amendments to the existing Law shall primarily provide for the expansion of procedural rights of advocates and guarantees of advocacy.

Among the main risks of the draft law, Valenyn Gvozdii named the narrowing of procedural rights through the proposed amendments to CPC, namely, the limitation of the content of the notion of «attorney-client privilege», the ability to remove an advocate for the abuse of procedural rights, or involve a public defender in the case where there is already an existing advocate contracted by a client at law enforcement agencies’ discretion, nullification of effectiveness of advocate’s request. In addition, the institutional separation of the system of national bar self-governing by federal principle that deprives lawyers of the "one voice of the profession", which is an effective means for defense of the rights of advocates both within the country and internationally.

We recall that the Bar Council of Ukraine supported alternative draft laws "On the Bar and Advocacy".