UNBA Urges the President to Initiate a Law on Establishing Business Ombudsmen

The Ukrainian National Bar Association cooperates fruitfully with the Council of Business Ombudsmen to achieve positive changes in preventing the violation of the rights and legitimate interests of business entities.

UNBA addressed the development of this cooperation to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on the need to regulate the business ombudsman institute by a special law, which is extremely important for improving the protection of business entities' rights and improving the business climate in Ukraine.

"A necessary step in order to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Business Ombudsman Council is to adopt a draft law" on the Office of the Business Ombudsman", which will become the basis for building an effective mechanism of public-private partnership as an effective tool for attracting investments in the public sector of the economy," – mentioned in the UNBA statement.

The presence of such a law will contribute to the formation of a positive image of Ukraine for both national and foreign businesses.

Given the urgency of the adoption of the Law on the Establishment of Business Ombudsman, UNBA asked the Head of State to submit the draft law to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine as a presidential legislative initiative.

As it is known, the business ombudsman investigates complaints about possible corruption or other violations of the legitimate interests of business entities as a result of actions or omissions (including decisions) by state and local self-government bodies, economic entities in the sphere of their management and their officials. A business ombudsman can be contacted if a business is facing problems in dealing with state and local authorities, state-controlled companies that it is unable to solve on its own.

The UNBA Committee on the Protection of Business and Investors' Rights was established as a permanent collegial advisory body. The main purpose of the Committee is to unite lawyers and exchange experience in providing legal assistance to businesses and investors, to interact with representatives of state and law enforcement agencies in matters of violation of legal rights and interests of economic entities, to form an expert position in solving practical problems, to promote the enhancement of the legal culture of business representatives and investors.