Petro Poroshenko Bloc nominated its candidacy for the position of Commissioner for Human Rights

The Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction in the Parliament has collected signatures for the nomination of People’s Deputy Serhiy Alexeyev for the position of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.

This was reported by Interfax-Ukraine referring to the Head of the PPB faction Artur Gerasimov.

“Yesterday was the last day. Everything goes in accordance with the procedure. The signatures were collected. For Alexeyev”, – he said.

In turn, Mustafa Dzhemilev, People’s Deputy of the same faction, expressed the opinion that the faction also supports the candidacy of acting Ombudswoman Valeriya Lutkovska.

“(Signatures) are not collected, but she will be among the candidates”, – said Dzhemilev.

Serhiy Alexeyev (born February 9, 1977) – is a honored Lawyer of Ukraine, People’s Deputy of the VIII convocation. He is the Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Policy and Justice.

As is known, the Commissioner is appointed and dismissed by the Parliament through the secret voting. Nomination of the candidacy for appointment to the post of new Ombudsman shall be made within 20 days from the day following the expiry of the term of office of the previous Ombudsman.

The Law provisions state that a citizen of Ukraine who has reached the age of 40 years old and has experience of human rights activities may be appointed as an Ombudsman.

Earlier it was reported that the People’s Front faction intends to nominate its People’s Deputy Lyudmyla Denisova for this post.

As a reminder, on April 28, a five-year term of office for the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Valeriya Lutkovska has ended.

On May 10, human rights defenders call on the Parliament to elect a new Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights without political influence, as well as manipulation and hold an open competition with the involvement of civil society representatives for consultations for this purpose.

“The election of an ombudsman should be out of political appointments or party quotas. Therefore, it is extremely important to protect both candidates for the position of Ombudsman and the institution of the Ombudsman from political influence. The Ombudsman should express his position based solely on international human rights standards and not serve the interests of political parties, groups, factions, etc.”, – said Olexandra Matviychuk, Chairman of the Center for Civil Liberties.

Human rights defenders also called on chairmen of parliamentary factions and deputy groups to demand the holding of a corresponding contest and not to vote for the candidacy of the human rights commissioner without holding a competition.

Human rights defenders consider it right if the candidates for the position of ombudsman can nominate themselves. And then the special commission should choose the most worthy by all criteria.

The authors of the statement would be happy to see lawyer and human rights activist Larysa Denysenko, Chairman of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group Yevgen Zakharov, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Volodymyr Yavorskyy and the last ombudsman Valeriy Lutkovska participating in the contest.

In the opinion of human rights defenders, the candidates at the contest should be checked by such criteria: high moral standards; deep knowledge of international human rights standards; long-term experience of human rights work; high prestige in society and international community; complete independence from political forces.