Human rights defenders call on the authorities to finalise the draft law on limiting pension rights for those who committed a crime

The Members of the Coalition that take care of issues of protection of the rights of persons affected by the armed aggression against Ukraine have reservations regarding the adoption of draft law No. 10355. This project proposes to establish the amount of pensions for those who committed certain crimes while serving a sentence no higher than the subsistence minimum for persons who have lost their ability to work.

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These restrictions will apply to those who committed a criminal offence against the foundations of national security, public safety, peace, human security, international legal order. However, according to human rights defenders, for persons who committed no less serious and premeditated crimes (such as murder, torture, enforced disappearance, human trafficking, rape, crimes against children, robbery, illegal enrichment, etc.), there are no negative consequences in the form of restriction of the right to a pension.

“Such an approach raises doubts about the state’s priorities regarding giving a negative assessment to the commission of certain types of crime”, human rights defenders draw attention.

Experts are also convinced that the restriction of the rights and freedoms of convicts should be properly justified and comply with the principle of justice, legal certainty and irreversibility of criminal legislation. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure adequate protection of the unlimited rights and freedoms of convicts.

A separate problem that human rights defenders pay attention to is that this draft law proposes not to pay pensions to suspects under certain articles of persons, although, according to the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is considered innocent of committing a crime until their guilt is proven in a legal manner.

“If the draft law is adopted in its current version, there is a high probability of an appeal against the decisions made in accordance with it, in particular at the European Court of Human Rights”, human rights defenders point out and note that the draft law needs to be revised.

The full analysis of the draft law you can find here (in Ukrainian).