Authorities and experts discussed possible lustration mechanisms for those who collaborated with the enemy

On April 24, in Kyiv, the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea held a meeting with representatives of state authorities, People’s Deputies of Ukraine and experts on approaches to inspections of those persons who cooperated with the aggressor state.

During the meeting, the participants talked about the international experience and standards of conducting such inspections, as well as possible assessments and consequences of the collaborative activity of Ukrainian citizens.

Permanent Representative Tamila Tasheva emphasised that the state is not going to hold everyone responsible just for living in the occupied territory. Tasheva also reported that the Mission continues to develop possible prosecution policies for cooperation with the enemy.

As Alena Lunova, the advocacy director of Human Rights Centre ZMINA, noted, lustration, i.e. inspection, is a permanent mechanism of transitional justice that was used by various countries to overcome the consequences of the totalitarian past or the consequences of war.

“Despite the fact that in Ukraine we had our own experience of lustration in 2014-2016 and it is difficult to call it successful, we should consider the possibility of introducing such checks. They will allow the temporary removal from the highest positions in the state and important management positions in the liberated territories of individual citizens who compromised themselves through voluntary ties and cooperation with the Russian Federation after the start of the war in 2014, as well as held certain “positions” and performed administrative functions in the occupied territories”, Lunova believes.

The expert also adds that such mechanisms are important not only for restoring trust in the state administration apparatus and the Ukrainian authorities in general in the de-occupied territories, but also for memorialising and establishing the truth about the armed aggression of the Russian Federation.