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Capital Punishment Issue Snared In Legal Trap

26 июня, 00:00

By Oksana PANCHENKO, The Day On June 22 the Constitutional Court adjourned hearings in the case on whether capital punishment complies with the Constitution, brought by People's Deputies who are currently attending a PACE session in Strasbourg. In the opinion of 51 People's Deputies who signed the petition, the articles of Ukraine's Penal Code authorizing the death penalty run counter to constitutional provisions recognizing the right to live as an integral and inalienable human right. It is with such slogans that the Youth is Ukraine's Hope Association picketed the Constitutional Court.

This is how the lawmakers, at the initiative of Ukraine's parliamentary delegation in PACE, attempted to resolve the problem of capital punishment. The de facto moratorium on carrying out death sentences meant that convicts on death row are now in legal limbo. Europe considers this a gross violation of human rights. So the Council of Europe demands a de jure moratorium.

The Solons who initiated the petition decided to choose for the Lithuanian option of declaring capital punishment unconstitutional. In this case the issue could get snared in a juridical trap, lawyers claim. According to Volodymyr Naumov, who works in the legislative Ombudsman's secretariat, the Constitution of Ukraine points out that nobody can be deprived of life unlawfully. But the Constitutional Court could rule that capital punishment is legalized in the Penal Code and, hence, complies with the Constitution. "To avoid this," Mr. Naumov believes, "it is necessary to amend the Constitution."

Выпуск газеты №:

№24, (1999)

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Day After Day