Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Friday signed a decree creating a commission on strengthening democracy and the rule of law in the country.
"In order to unite the efforts of government agencies, political parties, NGOs, and other civil society institutions in strengthening democracy and the rule of law, and in line with clause 28, part 1, of Article 106 of the Constitution of Ukraine, I order the formation of a commission on strengthening democracy and the rule of law as an advisory body," reads decree No.1015/2010 published on the president’s Web site.
Serhiy Holovaty was appointed chairman of the commission by consent. He was ordered to submit in the prescribed manner within a month the proposals on the personal staff of the commission.
Holovaty, born in 1954, was a Ukrainian people’s deputy of six convocations. In 1990, 1994 and 1998, he was elected an MP from electoral districts in Kyiv. In 2002, he won a seat in the Verkhovna Rada on the party ticket of the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko, in 2006 on the party ticket of Our Ukraine, and since November 2007, he has been a Regions Party MP
In 1995-2008, he was a member of Ukraine’s parliamentary delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), where he headed the Committee on Rules of Procedure and Immunities, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights and the Monitoring Committee. In 2005 and 2008, he served as PACE vice president.
In 1995-2000 and 2005, he was a member of the Venice Commission. In 1995-1997 and 2005-2007, he headed the Ukrainian Justice Ministry (in the governments led by former Prime Ministers Yevhen Marchuk, Pavlo Lazarenko and Yuriy Yekhanurov).
