Human Rights Groups ask President of Ukraine not to Sign New Court Law

The following excerpt of an open letter to President Viktor Yanukovych appeared on the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights website on July 18.

To read in full, visit http://www.helsinki.org.ua/en/

Dear Mr. President,
On July 7, 2010 the Verkhovna Rada, without waiting for the Venice Commission’s Opinion, hurriedly passed the Law “On the Judicial System and Status of Judges”. This was supposed to be the beginning of the long-awaited judicial reform.

However, despite a considerable number of positive innovations, some provisions of the new Law do not, in our opinion, comply with the Constitution, European standards and the interests of citizens, and will render meaningless future reform.