Draft law 10449: UNBA submits amendments to the lawyers' booking

In order to ensure the constitutional guarantee of everyone's right to legal aid, the draft law No. 10449 on strengthening mobilization should provide for the reservation of lawyers. The relevant amendments will be sent to the entities involved in the process of preparing the draft law for the second reading.

This decision was made by the Bar Council of Ukraine at its meeting on February 8.

Yesterday, on February 7, the Verkhovna Rada adopted as a basis the draft Law No. 10449 of 30.01.2024 «On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Certain Issues of Military Service, Mobilization and Military Registration». According to the rules of procedure, MPs have two weeks to submit comments and suggestions (amendments) to the relevant parliamentary committee to finalize the document and prepare it for the second reading.

In particular, the draft law provides for amendments to Article 25 of the Law «On Mobilization Training and Mobilization», according to which persons liable for military service who work or serve in courts, other state bodies and institutions of the justice system and pre-trial investigation bodies will be subject to reservation. It is proposed to establish that the procedure and organization of reservations, criteria, list of positions and professions, as well as the volume of reservations for persons liable for military service will be determined by the Cabinet of Ministers.

The UNBA believes that the list of persons liable for military service who are subject to reservation should be supplemented by Ukrainian lawyers.

«Everyone knows that judges and prosecutors who work in the justice system are protected from mobilization. And not only they - their assistants, other court and prosecutor's office employees, and employees of other law enforcement agencies. However, the issue of lawyers who protect people's rights by providing legal aid has not been resolved», said Lidiya Izovitova, the president of UNBA, BCU.

She recalled that the UNBA has repeatedly noted that the procedure for reserving persons liable for military service should also include lawyers as members of the organization of the justice system, and appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers and the Parliament on this issue.

«If the draft law was adopted even without the proposals of the relevant parliamentary committee, it means that our position on this issue has not been considered, - explained L. Izovitova. - Given the existing legislative procedure for preparing the draft law for the second reading, I propose to submit our specific proposals for supplementing the articles of the draft law on the reservation of lawyers to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, as well as to the Speaker of the Parliament, MPs and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, as subjects of legislative initiative».

Oleksiy Kukhar, deputy chairman of the UNBA, BCU estimates that there are 7-10 thousand lawyers liable for military service. «On the one hand, such a number of men will not affect the country's defense capability at all if they receive reservations. On the other hand, this is the most active part of the lawyers, - he noted. - This is the «layer» of male lawyers who can be at investigative actions somewhere at the front, go close to it to conduct investigative actions, where it is difficult for women to get and difficult to stay. Therefore, their mobilization will significantly reduce the protection of citizens, which must be taken into account».