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Updates on Ukraine

31 Dec 2005

In December 2002, the Parliament initiated the process of amending the Constitution, which is a necessary prerequisite for ratification, according to the Constitutional Court's opinion on compatibility of the Rome Statute. The draft legislation on constitutional amendments is currently under the scrutiny of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. It was prepared by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Justice, and was presented to the Supreme Court by the President. Once the Constitutional Court rules that the proposed amendments do not restrict the rights and freedoms of Ukrainian nationals, the draft will be submitted to the Parliament for approval.

An inter-ministerial working group was created to address the potential need for a constitutional amendment, at the request of the President.

On 12 July 2001, the Constitutional Court found the Rome Statute to be incompatible with the Ukrainian Constitution, with specific regard to those provisions on complementarity of the national criminal jurisdiction (para 10 of the Article 1 of the Rome Statute) and issues concerning immunity and surrender.

Previously, the President of Ukraine had submitted a proposal to the Constitutional Court to render its opinion on the conformity of the Rome Statute.