UWC President addressed Ukraine parliamentary committee hearings on strengthening state policy on sanctions

On 21 November 2018 in Kyiv, Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) President Eugene Czolij addressed hearings of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and Inter-ethnic Relations chaired by Hryhoriy Nemyria on the topic: “Strengthening state policy on the implementation of sanctions against individuals tied to the illegal politically motivated persecution of Ukrainian citizens on temporarily occupied territories and in the Russian Federation.”

The hearings focused on the issue of strengthening state laws of Ukraine with respect to the implementation of sanctions against a specific category of individuals, increasing the effectiveness of state sanctions, promoting sanctions by Western countries against individuals connected to the politically motivated illegal persecution of Ukrainian citizens, and the perspective of coordinating Ukraine’s sanctions policy with the principles of the Magnitsky legislation.

In his presentation, the UWC President noted the restrictive measures implemented by the international community against the Russian Federation for the blatant violations of its international commitments, namely as regards the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Eugene Czolij highlighted the need for the West to not only react, but develop a clear, proactive strategy to end the hybrid aggression of the Russian Federation against the West and to help Ukraine defend its territorial integrity.

Specifically, the UWC President recommended:

1. Create an international commission that will be tasked with reviewing all existing sanctions against the Russian Federation, assess their effectiveness and make recommendations on sanctions policy.
2. Ukraine, which suffers most from Russian aggression, should spearhead the process of developing a global sanctions policy.
3. The governing authorities of Ukraine and its diplomatic missions, as well as the UWC with its network should encourage countries to monitor the effectiveness of existing legislation akin to the Magnitsky Act, as in the USA, Canada, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, and make appropriate recommendations on how such sanctions can be enhanced and actively implemented, and also call on countries that have not implemented sanctions laws similar to the Magnitsky Act to do so promptly.
4. The governing authorities of Ukraine should include in this process the 20-million strong Ukrainian diaspora led by the UWC, which can contribute legal and economic expertise, and work with governments to create the mechanisms for implementing an effective international sanctions regime against the Russian Federation.

The hearings, organized with the support of the Media Initiative for Human Rights and the Ukrainian Helsinki Group for Human Rights, were attended by deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, representatives of governing authorities and structures, diplomatic representations, international and community organizations and mass media.

“The improvement of Ukraine’s sanctions policy must go hand-in-hand with the coordination of international sanctions policy,  and in this respect, the Ukrainian World Congress is prepared to be a reliable partner and catalyst for change,” stated UWC President Eugene Czolij.

Read the presentation of the UWC President HERE.

View video of the presentation by the UWC President HERE (from 13:53 min.).

Read more about the hearings on the web portal of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.