Editor’s Note: The Human Rights Watch group on Jan. 24 published its annual report, which provides the following critique of last year’s attempts by President Viktor Yanukovych’ and his legal reform team to fix the country's notoriously corrupt judiciary:
"President Yanukovych pledged to undertake judicial reform in compliance with european standards and in close consultation with relevant Council of Europe bodies, particularly the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission). However, judicial reform, a central element of Ukraine’s commitment to the Council of Europe, is being conducted hastily and without apparent consideration of the commission’s opinions and recommendations. Authorities submitted the controversial draft law "On the Judicial System and the Status of Judges" for Venice Commission review in March 2010. The Venice Commission and the Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs of the Council of Europe recommended substantial changes to the draft law, some of which require constitutional reform. In July 2010 the government signed the bill into law without implementing the Council of Europe’s recommendations. The law significantly reduces the power of the Supreme Court and increases the authority of the High Council of Justice, a body criticized for lacking independence."
The entire HRW report is available here and the the chapter on Ukraine is here.
The president and his team deny allegations that they are behind Ukraine’s negative trajectory in the democracy rankings. But European Union, U.S. and leading international democracy watchdogs have all in recent months expressed growing concern over anti-democratic tendencies, including the muzzling of media and use of the judiciary as a political persecution tool against oppositionists.
In its annual assessment of the global state of democracy released on Jan. 13, Washington-based Freedom House downgraded Ukraine from “free” to “partly free.”
Presidential Administration deputy head Hanna Herman on Jan. 24 dismissed the Freedom House report, saying the authors were prejudiced against Ukraine.
"I think that Freedom House was biased against Ukraine. Why do our neighbors sometimes allow themselves to talk in such a highbrow, expectant tone. What are they doing? How do they react [to the negative tendency]. We simply don’t have the resources necessary, enough reserve capacity, because our economy is weak. Anyway, Freedom House used one-sided information," she said during an interview with Channel 5 TV.
