Donbas special status should be approved on referendum only – Zakharov

The Constitution and legal procedures should not be neglected while granting special status to Donbas territories.

Yevhen Zakharov, human rights activist and director of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group said, the Human Rights Information Center correspondent reports.

Zakharov noted that conduct of reforms and elaboration of the amendments to the Constitution were often guided by political expediency. Moreover, the various political forces defended their interests, not followed the law.

According to his observations, the format of the various groups on elaboration of the constitutional amendments was different.

“The group for human rights and fundamental freedoms held 36 meetings, which any person could take part in and submit proposals to. I personally managed to achieve that one of my amendments was included in the draft of the working group. Of course, it is very positive moment,” Zakharov said.

At the same time, the working group on decentralization held only three meetings, and it was really difficult to attend them.

“The representatives of the Presidential Administration brought the bill on amendments to the Constitution and gave no time to read it in advance. The commission members were given 20 minutes to read the document, then it was voted on. That should not be done in such a way. Moreover, the commission members, who had not been present at the meeting, did not receive the bill. After that, the bill was submitted to the Parliament, and it was voted on in two weeks without discussion,” the human rights activist noted.

The clashes between protesters and law enforcers, which occurred near the Verkhovna Rada on August 31 after the adoption of the constitutional amendments, were the direct result of the closed nature of elaboration of the amendments, Yevhen Zakharov said.

Another consequence was the poor quality of the document, which is still planned to be voted on in the second reading. According to Zakharov, it shouldn’t be voted.

“We need to clearly understand that the special status of certain territories is the change of the constitutional system. It is the change of the 1st section of the Constitution. If it is so, it should be approved on the referendum in compliance with procedure for making amendments to the Constitution,” Yevhen Zakharov said.

The human rights activist noted that the purpose of those changes was clear – to bring peace to the east, to stop killing of our soldiers and civilians. However, the Constitution and the legal procedures should not been ignored.