December 11, 2024
On December 11, 2024, the First Senate deliberated the case upon the constitutional complaint of Oleksandra Matviichuk at the public part of the plenary session in the form of oral proceedings.
During the plenary session, the Judge-rapporteur in the case, Olga Sovgyria, reported that the Applicant had filed a petition with the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to verify the compliance of Article 18840 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses (hereinafter, the “Code”) and Article 22 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights” No. 776/97–VR dated December 23, 1997, as amended (hereinafter, the “Law”), with the Constitution of Ukraine.
Under Article 18840 of the Code, “failure to comply with the legal requirements of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights or representatives of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights shall result in a fine from one hundred up to two hundred tax-free minimum incomes of citizens for officials and citizens who are business entities.”
Article 22 of the Law establishes the obligation of the bodies of state power, local self-government bodies, associations of citizens, enterprises, institutions, organizations regardless of their form of ownership, officials and employees addressed by the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights (hereinafter, the “Commissioner”) to cooperate with the Commissioner and provide him/her with the necessary assistance.
The content of the constitutional complaint and the materials attached to it reveals the following.
Oleksandra Matviichuk is the Head of the NGO “Center for Civil Liberties” (hereinafter, the “NGO”). In October 2023, the Secretariat of the Commissioner, while conducting proceedings on the possible violation of the Law of Ukraine “On Citizens’ Appeals” by the Head of the NGO, addressed the NGO with a request, in particular, to inform about the results of consideration of the citizen’s applications submitted in January and September 2022. As this letter was left without response from the Secretariat of the Commissioner, the Commissioner’s representative in November 2023 addressed the NGO with a warning that refusal to cooperate with the Commissioner would result in liability under the legislation in force.
In January 2024, the Secretariat of the Commissioner drew up a report on an administrative offense against Oleksandra Matviichuk for “failure to comply with the legal requirements of the Commissioner’s representative” and sent the case file to the court.
The court of first instance delivered a resolution finding Oleksandra Matviichuk guilty of committing an offense under Article 18840 of the Code and imposing an administrative penalty in the form of a fine of 1700 UAH. Disagreeing with this, she appealed to the Court of Appeal to overturn the decision and close the proceedings. The court dismissed Oleksandra Matviichuk's appeal and upheld the decision of the court of the first instance, citing, in particular, Article 22 of the Law.
The Applicant believes that “the Commissioner’s powers to exercise parliamentary control over the observance of the constitutional right of citizens to appeal are limited by the requirements of Article 40 of the Constitution of Ukraine and apply exclusively to subjects of power”.
In her opinion, the application of the impugned provisions of the Code and the Law interferes with freedom of association, violates the principles of legality, legal certainty and prohibition of arbitrariness, the guaranteed right to individualized responsibility and the implementation of the requirements for timely, comprehensive, full and objective clarification of the circumstances of the case, which significantly restricted the right to a fair trial.
The Judge-rapporteur informed that in order to ensure a full and comprehensive deliberation of the case, letters of inquiry had been sent tothe bodies of state power, academic institutions and higher education establishments with a request to express their positions on the issues raised in the constitutional complaint. The Judge noted that she will inform the Judges of the content of the positions presented at the in-camera part of the plenary session.
During the plenary session, the Court heard explanations from the representatives of the subject of the right to a constitutional complaint, lawyers Mykhailo Tarakhkalo and Yuliia Kovalenko, the Permanent Representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine at the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Maksym Dyrdin, and the Representative of the President of Ukraine at the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Serhii Dembovskyi.
The involved parties to the constitutional proceedings – the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets, the Representative of the Commissioner for the Judiciary on the Right to Fair Justice and Representation in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Andrii Ovsiienko, and the Acting Minister of Justice of Ukraine, First Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine Mykola Kucheriavenko – also presented their positions.
The Court examined the case file at the public part of the plenary session and proceeded to the in-camera part of the plenary session to further discuss issues related to the constitutional proceedings in this case and to deliver a decision.
The video recording of the public part of the plenary session is available at: “Archive of Video Broadcasts of Sessions”.
