Human Rights organization appeal to the President of Ukraine to veto law “On Amending Article 3 of the Law of Ukraine “On Corruption Prevention”

"We demand from the President of Ukraine to use his constitutional right and to impose a veto on the mentioned law that was given to him to sign on March 27, 2017." - goes in an open appeal to the President of Ukraine concerning the Law “On Amending Article 3 of the Law of Ukraine “On Corruption Prevention” posted on the website of The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union.

We stress that the provisions of the law violate the principle of legal certainty. Because of uncertainty in definitions, this law risks becoming a tool for arbitrary and selective application.

Moreover, corruption prevention and combating has not been distinguished as a specific type of activity, and is almost always one of the components of most NGOs’ work. It is hard to imagine an organization that claims to promote corruption through their activities. Therefore, the activities of each organization dedicated to advocating for changes to the legal system can find elements of “anti-corruption” activities.

We believe that the provision was adopted in order to allow the pressure on public associations, complicate or prevent their activities, particularly aimed at fighting corruption.

Furthermore, the law makes it intentionally in a manner to leave a space for its arbitrary and selective application that actually creates fertile ground for corruption.

We believe that this provision is harmful to the development of civil society and corruption prevention, which the law is aimed at.

The appeal signed by The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, The Kharkiv Institute for Social Researches, The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, representatives of NGO "MART", NGO "Human rights platform", NGO "Shore of Peace", UGSPL, NGO "Social Action Centre" also signed the appeal.