On 14 January the hearings were conducted in the Supreme Rada of the Crimea on the question of the observance of human rights in the Autonomous Republic.

(After the materials of “Kontekst-Media”, the Crimea)

The hearings were organized by the Crimean Parliament jointly with the Simferopol public organization “The institute if social research” in the framework of the project “Human rights in the Crimea” supported by the International Foundation “Vidrodjennia”.

The participants of the hearings proposed to the people’s deputies, elected in the Crimea, to endorse the initiative of ombudsperson Nina Karpacheva about the creation of the mechanism of “constitutional complaint”, which would give citizens the opportunity to turn to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on the questions of the protection of their constitutional rights.

The participants appealed to the Supreme Rada of Ukraine with the proposition to introduce the changes concerning the remuneration of labor to the legislation. In particular, they proposed to the Supreme Rada to support the amendment to the Law of Ukraine “On the remuneration of labor” about the payment of salaries by enterprises and organizations before the payment of taxes and other obligatory dues. It was also suggested to change the Law “On the resumption of paying capacity of a debtor or its bankruptcy” in the part of the satisfaction out of turn of the financial demands concerning the payment of salaries at the liquidation of an enterprise or recognition of it as a bankrupt.

The participants recommended to the Main directorate of the Ministry of Interior in the Crimea and the republican prosecutor’s office to intensify the control over the conditions of upkeep of the detained and arrested. The Recommendations issued at the hearings read that this measure “is necessary for preventing the application of physical violence, humiliation of honor and dignity of the detained and arrested”.

Vladimir Malakhov, the first deputy of the head of the Main directorate of the Ministry of Interior in the Crimea, delivered the speech at the hearings. Mr. Malakhov believes that two millions hryvnas should be allotted for bringing the Crimean preliminary prisons to the concordance with the standards.

According to the data given by V. Malakhov, the average number of convicts staying in the Crimean special establishments is 703 persons, while the limit is 651. “The permanent overcrowding of the cells of the special penitentiary establishments and their bad equipment do not allow to obey the sanitary norms”, V. Malakhov pointed out. Besides, there is the urgent necessity of the reconstruction of the preliminary prisons: none of them, by the words of Malakhov, “corresponds to the European norms and standards”. The deputy of the head of the Crimean militia also told that the daylight was absent in the Alushta, Saki and Feodosia preliminary prisons, and that there were no yards for walks in five preliminary prisons: in Simferopol, Feodosia, Sudak, Saki and Belogorsk.

According to V. Malakhov, in 2003 no finances were allotted from the state budget for reconstruction of the Crimean special establishments. “The mentioned drawbacks cannot be liquidated without the proper financing”, he pointed out. He also informed that in 2003 only 520 thousand hryvnas instead of the 793 thousand (that is 65.6%) needed for the nourishment of the detained were got from the budget.

In 2003 as many as 11.9 thousand persons were detained and taken into custody on suspicion of the commitment of various crimes, 5.5 thousand persons got under the administrative arrest.

Ombudsperson Nina Karpacheva stated in her speech that the courts of the Crimea frequently took the ungrounded decisions on the incarceration as a preventive measure. Such ungrounded court decisions is one of the causes of the overcrowding of preliminary prisons and, as a result, the inadmissible upkeep conditions in these penitentiaries, believes Nina Karpacheva. According to her data, during last 18 months the Crimean courts considered 5.7 thousand requests handed by investigating organs about such preventive measure as taking into custody, and refused to issue the arrest warrant only in 372 cases. The ombudsperson pointed out the neglectful attitude of courts to the consideration of the requests of law-enforcing organs about the arrest warrants: some courts issued the sanctions for arrest practically in every case. For example, the Djankoy local court considered more than 200 requests, and refused to give the sanction only in one case, Feodosia court – refused to give the sanction in 6 cases out of 477.

N. Karpacheva also pointed out that the judges frequently used the standard arguments of the same kind without the detailed explanation of the motives of the taken decision. The ombudsperson believes that this fact raises doubts about the thorough and complete study by judges of the circumstances of the cases and of the proofs presented by the law-enforcing organs.

N. Karpacheva stated that “the arrest may be applied only as an exception, in the cases, where another preventive measure cannot guarantee the fulfillment of the tasks of the criminal process”.

The participants of the hearings turned to ombudsperson Nina Karpacheva with the request to realize the permanent monitoring of the observance of human rights in the Crimean Autonomous Republic for the effective disclosure and liquidation of the violations.