Court sees no discrimination in NBU’s decision recognizing Crimean people as non-residents

The court’s ruling states that the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) imposed restrictions because of requirements of the legislation.

The full text of the decision of the Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal was published by lawyer of the Regional Centre for Human Rights Serhiy Zayets. The Court did not see the fact of discrimination, but acknowledged that the rule recognizing Crimean people as non-residents should be repealed.

The resolution says that the National Bank of Ukraine in accordance with the current legislation does not have the authority to recognize people as non-residents on the basis of their registration in Crimea. Therefore, the Court of Appeal considers that the ruling of the court of the first instance on the absence of legal reasons for cancellation of the corresponding provision of the NBU’s resolution No.699 was groundless. It is noted that the National Bank of Ukraine exceeded its authority by adopting this resolution.

Furthermore, the court of appeal noted that the plaintiffs’ allegations of blocking their accounts were unfounded, as the evidence of such blocking by the banks had not been presented, while the banks had refused to provide a certificate of blocking.

The text of the ruling says that “in accordance with the Article 8 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Prevention and Combating Discrimination in Ukraine’, the defendant had performed the anti-discrimination examination of the draft resolution No.699, which the appropriate conclusion was made on.”

It is also stated that the National Bank set restrictions on the adoption of measures to eliminate the negative impact of the temporary occupation of Crimea because of the need to implement the provisions of the law that are binding, and therefore pursue the legitimate aim and cannot be deemed to contain the signs of discrimination.

As reported, November 3, 2014, the National Bank of Ukraine adopted the resolution No. 699, equaling the citizens of Ukraine to Crimean registration to the non-residents. The commercial banks on the mainland Ukraine have subsequently began to block accounts of Crimean residents, barred them from loan granting, getting transfers and performing other financial transactions.

The Crimean residents filed over ten lawsuits demanding to cancel the National Bank’s decision. The Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeals considered one such complaint, drawn up with the support of the lawyers of the Regional Human Rights Centre.

August 21, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Ukraine ruled that the NBU’s resolution on recognition of the Crimean people as non-residents of Ukraine was contrary to the effective legislation.