Ukraine has been reforming its law enforcement and economy for three decades. Yet, much has remained unchanged, and some things have even gotten worse.
“Reform” has become no more than a fig leaf. Constant reshuffles and cosmetic changes do not alter the substance of Ukraine’s corrupt, lawless and impotent law enforcement bodies.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, like his predecessor Petro Poroshenko, is continuing the tradition of pseudo-reforms that drag on for years and result in nothing.
In April Zelensky submitted an “urgent” bill to liquidate the Kyiv District Administrative Court, headed by judge Pavlo Vovk — the national symbol of corruption and injustice. Despite all the articulated “urgency,” the bill has been blocked for six months.
Anti-corruption activists say that Zelensky is not willing to liquidate the court. Instead, he wants to use criminal cases against Vovk to pull his strings for his own purposes, which Zelensky’s office denied.
But there is a similar tendency with the Constitutional Court, a tainted body that has destroyed asset declarations — a key pillar of anti-corruption infrastructure.
Its chairman, Oleksandr Tupytsky, has been charged with obstruction of justice. He must be tried and jailed if found guilty.
But Zelensky went far beyond his constitutional authority by firing him and another judge of the court in March. Zelensky is planning to replace the two judges with others, which would be unconstitutional.
His party has also refused to hold a transparent competition for Constitutional Court jobs with foreign experts’ participation when incumbents retire. Instead of reforming the court, Zelensky is trying to fill it with his protégés through unconstitutional methods.
Neither is the selection of the chief anti-corruption prosecutor, a key corruption-fighting role, going smoothly.
Since the government’s preferred candidates for the job were vetoed by foreign experts in May-July, the selection process has been effectively blocked by pro-government members on the selection panel.
Some hope that reforming of Ukraine’s two discredited judicial governing bodies, the High Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission, will be more effective. In July, parliament approved two bills that gave foreign experts a crucial role in forming the bodies.
But we shouldn’t count our chickens before they hatch.
In 2019 Zelensky signed similar judicial reform legislation but it was not implemented due to the High Council of Justice’s refusal to carry it out.
There is no guarantee the new judicial reform won’t be sabotaged again. And while the leadership continues to show no political will to carry it through, chances are, there will be nothing to count again.
