Verkhovna Rada dismisses Denisova from Ombudswoman position
On May 31, the Verkhovna Rada dismissed Lyudmila Denisova, the Parliament's Ombudswoman for Human Rights.
This decision was supported by 234 people's deputies who have expressed distrust towards her, which resulted in her dismissal.
It will be recalled that on May 30, Lyudmila Denisova announced the collection of signatures among deputies to declare distrust towards her and remove her from office. According to the ombudswoman, her dismissal would be illegal: there is some alleged inconsistency in the procedure due to the amendments to the law on the functioning of civil service and local self-government during martial law being put into effect. Denisova said that the authorities were not satisfied with her work, in particular in gathering information about the situation in the temporarily occupied territories, and said that such actions of the authorities were interference with the work of the Ombudswoman's Office, Hromadske reported.
The Law "On the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine" does not provide for a vote of distrust in the Ombudswoman. However, the Law "On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on the Functioning of Civil Service and Local Self-Government during Martial Law," which was put into effect on May 12, enables such dismissal of Denisova.
According to LIGA.net, citing an interlocutor in the leadership of the Servant of the People faction, one of the reasons for expressing distrust was Denisova's unsatisfactory work on the exchange of prisoners: "She was completely absent in the exchange process. She was not in touch with the negotiating group, but she was actively giving comments. And she gave a lot of unnecessary comments."
As IMI reported, on May 31, over 30 human rights organizations called on the Verkhovna Rada to stop politicizing and trying to destroy the independence of the Ombudsman's institution and to create conditions for an independent competition for this position in compliance with all international standards.
On May 25, 2022, female Ukrainian media workers called on the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova to abstain from excessively detailed descriptions of sexual crimes during the war, as well as to verify and carefully consider every word to avoid sensationalism in the reports.
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