President for Independent Constitutional Court

President Leonid Kuchma believes that the “non-implementation,” by Verkhovna Rada, of the decisions of the all-Ukraine referendum of April 16, 2000 will have “negative political and moral consequences for the state and the people.” He made this statement on October 18 at ceremonies commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. Mr. Kuchma is quoted by UNIAN as saying that this would “call into question the constitutional principle concerning the source of power in Ukraine.” The president noted that “regrettably, this circumstance has aroused special concern in all those supporting democracy outside Ukraine as well” and that “one can be in opposition to the regime, to some or other parties, but one cannot be in opposition to one’s own people.”

In Ukraine, “attempts continue being made, under the mottoes of democracy and parliamentary government, to prevent power of the people from being exercised,” stressed the president and said that the elections bill passed by parliament is “an attempt to substitute the universal, equal, and direct suffrage with a purely party affair.” As an argument, he quoted from the constitution, that the people is the carrier of sovereignty and the only source of power, so it is the people’s exclusive right to determine and change the constitutional order of Ukraine and the underlying principles of democracy.

Once again the president insisted that the bill on the judicial system and other “exceptionally necessary” bills and codes had to be enacted forthwith. He reminded that Ukraine undertook to enact these laws when entering the Council of Europe in 1995, yet “it is not the Council of Europe that needs them. We do, our state and the citizenry.” Mr. Kuchma pointed out that judicial reform is closely linked with the reform of the law enforcement authorities, that this issue is “long overdue.” He signed an edict appointing a law enforcement reform committee and is now waiting for relevant proposals. He hopes that such proposals will help solve the problem, particularly in overcoming “obsolete stereotypes and the concept of law enforcement authorities as having exclusive repressive and punitive functions.”

Leonid Kuchma further spoke for amending the law on the Constitutional Court. “Everyone must argue his case in court, but when the court passes a ruling it must be carried out by all means and in full measure,” he declared, adding that this implies personal responsibility on the part of government officials and those at the self- government level; therefore, appropriate changes have to be made in the law on the Constitutional Court.

The chief executive emphasized the need to further enhance the legal principles governing the Constitutional Court and that it was necessary to make citizens’ access easier. He noted that decisions made by the Constitutional Court with regard to constitutional-legal disputes are not always “regarded unequivocally... These decisions could be subject to a balanced scientific analysis and be regarded by the interested parties from different standpoints, but no one can under any circumstances influence the decision-making process or call in doubt the impersonal approach of the court, let alone accuse it of anything.”