Saturday, January 12, 2013

ECHR does Ukrainians a big favour

In 2010 Oleksandr Fedorovych Volkov, a former judge of the Ukrainian Supreme Court, was dismissed from this eminent position by a vote in the Verkhovna Rada.

He later filed a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming his rights had been violated.

A few days ago the ECHR ruled in his favour..because: "The Members of Parliament present [in the Verhovna Rada who voted for his dismissal] used voting cards which belonged to their absent peers. Statements of Members of Parliament about the misuse of voting cards and a video recording of the relevant part of the plenary meeting have been submitted to the Court."

[Full EHCR Ruling here ]

A precedent has now been set.

In future, if credible evidence can be presented to the ECHR of parliamentary vote fiddling which breaches an appellant's human rights, the court will rule in the appellant's favour.

 'U.P.' blogger, Mustafa Nayem, considers this could even turn out to be a good earner...Volkov could be in line for 20,000 Euros of compensation..

Similarly, if there is credible evidence that laws have been passed or appointments made, e.g. as was the case with the new chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine, Ihor Sorkin, by means of parliamentary vote fiddling, in future Ukrainian authorities can have no complaint if they are later deemed to be illegitimate.



1 comment:

elmer said...

The ECHR also just dealt with the case of a baby neglected in a Zookrainian prison:

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/ukraine-to-answer-for-accusations-of-neglect-involving-baby-in-prison-318689.html