Ukraine in Arabic | The process of lustration started in Ukraine
KYIV/Ukraine in Arabic/ The lustration law took effect in Ukraine on Wednesday after it was published by the parliament newspaper Holos Ukrainy.
The bill passed by the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) on September 16 was signed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko into law on October 9.
The document sets out the legal and organizational principles of the procedure for depriving of power persons defined in this law, with the aim of establishing in society the supremacy of law, legality, and improving the effectiveness of the fight against corruption.
According to the explanatory note, the purpose of the lustration law is to restore confidence in the government and create conditions for the creation of a new system of government in line with European standards.
The procedure for appropriate checks when deciding on the appointment of persons as subjects of checks to government posts is introduced to achieve this goal.
In addition, it is planned to organize the procedure for checking persons who are subject to checks regarding their compliance with the criteria set out in the law, in order to address the possibility of their further tenure in government posts.
Lustration checks concern, in particular, the Cabinet of Ministers, the heads of all central government agencies, the heads of the Antimonopoly Committee, the National Bank of Ukraine, the State Property Fund, other agencies, and the heads of law enforcement agencies.
The ban to hold positions in government agencies applies to persons who occupied their posts for more than a year in the period from February 25, 2010 to February 22, 2014, as well as officials who occupied their posts in the period from November 21, 2013 to February 22, 2014 and did not resign in this period.
Ukrainian Premier Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that about 1 million persons would come within the purview of this law. He said that all chain of command would fall under this law.
Yuriy Derevianko, one of the authors of the bill and a member of the working group that prepared the bill for second reading, said the law will apply to all public servants and local self-government officials without exception.