Rada adopted draft law on Military Ombudsman
The Verkhovna Rada has adopted in the second reading draft law No. 13266 on the Military Ombudsman.
This was reported by Censor.NET.
The decision was supported by 283 MPs.
"The purpose of the draft law is to create an additional effective mechanism for protecting the rights of servicemen, which will complement the existing means of protecting constitutional rights and freedoms of human and citizen, without cancelling them and without creating grounds for revising the competence of state bodies that ensure the protection and restoration of violated rights and freedoms," the explanatory note says.
The military ombudsman will be appointed by the President of Ukraine for a five-year term. The same person cannot be appointed to the position of the Military Ombudsman for more than two consecutive terms.
"The Military Ombudsman may be appointed a citizen of Ukraine, not younger than 30 years of age, who has a higher education degree of at least a specialist (master's) degree, is fluent in the state language, has high moral qualities and an impeccable reputation, has been living in Ukraine for the last five years before the appointment and is able to perform the relevant duties for health reasons," the explanatory note states.
The main tasks of the Military Ombudsman are: to exercise democratic civilian control over the security and defence sector to ensure that military authorities and military commanders respect the rights of servicemen; to identify, based on the results of systematisation and analysis of the information collected/received on violations of the rights of servicemen, the causes and conditions leading to such violations; to develop proposals on ways/means to minimise and eliminate the identified causes and conditions leading to violations of the rights of servicemen, as well as preventing their occurrence in the future; preparing analytical conclusions and recommendations for military management and command bodies with a goal of improving the effectiveness of protecting the rights of military personnel.
Complaints to the Military Ombudsman can be filed both directly by servicemen and by other persons authorised to do so in accordance with the procedure established by law.
"It is envisaged that the Military Ombudsman will cooperate with the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights and provide him with the necessary assistance in accordance with the law. The Military Ombudsman and the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights may conclude an agreement (memorandum) on matters relating to their cooperation," the statement said.
