Verkhovna Rada adopts law on military ombudsman in first reading

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted in the first reading the draft law on the Military Ombudsman, which was supported by 287 MPs.

This was announced by MP from the Voice faction Yaroslav Zheleznyak.

On May 8, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi submitted this draft law to the Verkhovna Rada, identifying it as urgent. According to the explanatory note to the draft law, the main tasks of the Military Ombudsman will be

• exercising democratic civilian control over the security and defense sector to ensure that military authorities and military commanders respect the rights of servicemen;
• identifying, based on the results of systematization and analysis of collected or received information on violations of the rights of servicemen, the causes and conditions that lead to such violations;
• to develop proposals on ways and means to minimize and eliminate the identified causes and conditions that lead to violations of the rights of servicemen, as well as to prevent their occurrence in the future;
• to draw up analytical conclusions and recommendations for military administration and military command in order to increase the effectiveness of ensuring the protection of the rights of servicemen.

Complaints to the Military Ombudsman can be filed by servicemen directly or by other persons authorized to do so in accordance with the procedure established by law. The Military Ombudsman or one of his/her deputies will have the right to appoint inspections based on the results of complaints.

The grounds for the appointment of inspections by the Military Ombudsman or one of his/her deputies will be data indicating violations of the rights of servicemen obtained from any source, including information contained in complaints filed, appeals of people's deputies (groups of people's deputies) of Ukraine sent to the Military Ombudsman, published in the media, and information communicated to the Military Ombudsman by persons on a confidential basis.

Кирило Бойко