Former Ukraine’s Constitutional Court judge: Constitution cannot be amended under conditions of martial law

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine did not have the right to amend the Constitution under the conditions of martial law.

This was stated by former judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Viktor Shyshkin, the Human Rights Information Centre correspondent reports.

“The Parliament and the President showed the Ukrainian people that they do not respect the Constitution. Article 157 of the Fundamental Law says that the Constitution shall not be amended under the conditions of martial law. It refers not to declaration of war or introduction of a martial status, it refers to conditions. They ignored this injunction of the Constitution,” the expert says.

He is convinced that the conditions of martial law began with the first shot made from the territory of Russia and with the entry of its forces into the territory of Ukraine.

“Under such conditions, we passed the law on the occupied territories of April 15, 2014, which clearly says that we have now the occupied territories as a result of Russian aggression. Are these not conditions of martial law?” Viktor Shyshkin wonders.

He believes that the vote in the Verkhovna Rada is humiliation of Ukraine in the international arena, and describes the voting day as “Black Thursday.”

“Because we give carte blanche to Putin for him to say that he is not the aggressor. If we amend the Constitution under the conditions of martial law, we show that we have no martial law. If there are no conditions of martial law, then, there is no aggressor. And our cries that the Russian Federation is the aggressor, disappear by themselves,” Viktor Shyshkin explains.

The former Constitutional Court judge accuses the initiators of amendments of low professionalism, responding to the remark that the EU and the US supported Ukrainian judicial reform.

“Have they read our Constitution? If not, why do they impose behavior contradicting our Constitution on us? How would Steinmeier [German Foreign Minister] or Americans react to the value of their Constitution? So, their Constitution cannot be violated, while it is possible to violate ours.  I see just double standards of the diplomatic corps of the EU and other countries, nothing more,” Viktor Shyshkin says.

June 2, Ukrainian lawmakers passed a new version of the law on judicial system and status of judges and adopted the constitutional amendments related to judiciary.  

The human rights activists and experts slammed the amendments, pointing out that they could become a tool to establish control over the judicial system.

Earlier, chairwoman of the Batkivshchyna faction Yulia Tymoshenko criticized the judicial reform, which was supported by 13 out of 19 members of her faction.

On Thursday, MP Nadiya Savchenko registered her first draft resolution in the Parliament on cancellation of the decision of the Parliament to pass the law on judicial system and status of judges.