Legal news Ukraine: ECHR’s decision on life sentences, appointment of judges, conclusion of the Supreme Court on military pensions, selection of candidates for the High Council of Justice, a new social payment to large families

The European Court of Human Rights has approved the decision on life sentences in Ukraine

The European Court of Human Rights made a decision in the case of Ukrainian Vladimir Petukhov «Petukhov v. Ukraine (No. 2)» on March 12, 2019.

Petukhov, who was sentenced for life, complained to the court that Ukrainian legislation does not provide for parole for prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment.

The court found violations of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights, since Petukhov was not able to appeal his life sentence.

The Court noted that, in order for a life sentence to be consistent with Article 3 of the Convention, prisoners should be provided with the possibility of dismissal and the possibility of reviewing the sentence. At the same time, the only option for mitigating the sentence in Ukraine is the presidential clemency.

The pardon procedure is explained as follows: life-sentence prisoners «may be pardoned in exceptional cases and under extraordinary circumstances». At the same time, it is not clarified what the particular circumstances are.

In addition, the conditions of detention in Ukraine have made it impossible for the prisoners to be successfully rehabilitated, and therefore the authorities have no reason to review their sentences.

The ECHR noted that such a problem is systematic and, referring to Article 46 (binding force of decisions and their implementation), established that Ukraine should reform the procedure for reviewing life sentences.

The court proposes to review all such decisions in order to ascertain their validity. Also, life- sentence prisoners should know the order and conditions for mitigating sentences or parole.

The ECtHR found another violation of Article 3 of the Convention, since Petukhov did not receive proper medical care for the treatment of tuberculosis.

According to the court decision, Ukraine has to pay Petukhov 750 euros for material damage, 10 thousand euro for non-pecuniary damage due to inadequate medical assistance, 20 euro for postage and another 10 thousand euro for the complainant's lawyer.

The Supreme Court has determined which payments are taken into account for calculating pensions of military

One-time additional types of cash security are not taken into account when calculating military pensions. It is, in particular, annual, quarterly, one-time additional types of cash security, regardless of whether a single social contribution is paid from them.

Such a conclusion was made by the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court in the case of the claim of a person dismissed from military service to the Pension Fund of Ukraine on the recalculation of his pension.

The plaintiff asked to oblige the Pension Fund to transfer the pension granted to him, taking into account financial assistance for rehabilitation, material assistance to solve social issues, remuneration for the duration of continuous military service and cash bonuses in accordance with the Disciplinary Regulations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The plaintiff noted that he paid a single fee for obligatory state social insurance from all these types of cash security.

However, the authority that issued the certificate for the appointment of the plaintiff’s pension did not take them into account. This was the reason for assigning a smaller pension.

The judges found that the pension is calculated only from the main monthly types of cash security: salary, salary for military rank, percentage premium for years of service, as well as monthly additional types of cash security (premium, surcharge, increase) and bonuses should also be monthly.

Thus, the payment of a single social contribution is not an absolute basis for including the payment from which this contribution is retained, to the monetary support, from which the pension is calculated.

The President has appointed judges to local courts

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed the Decree of February 12, 2019 No. 69/2019 on the appointment of judges.

The President decided to appoint judges to posts in local general courts of Kryvyy Rig, Zhytomyr, Kherson and Cherkasy regions.

Two judges were assigned to the Ivano-Frankivsk region, in Kharkov and Zaporozhye, and three – to Lviv.

Another judge was appointed to Kiev.

The President announced the start of the selection of candidates for the High Council of Justice

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko announced the start of the competition for the appointment of the High Council of Justice’s members of his quota, states his Decree № 65/2019.

Persons, who do not meet the established requirements for the members of the High Council of Justice, and who can not be members of the High Council of Justice in accordance with the Law of Ukraine «On the High Council of Justice», are not allowed to participate in the contest according to the decision of the Competition Commission.

The competition is held in three stages:

1) selection of candidates based on the documents submitted for interviewing;

2) conducting interviews with selected candidates and determining the list of persons in respect of whom a special examination is being conducted;

3) decision candidates for the High Council of Justice, which will be recommended to the President of Ukraine.

As a reminder, the High Council of Justice consists of twenty one members, two of them
are appointed by the President of Ukraine.

The term of office of the High Council of Justice’s members is four years. The same person cannot hold the position of a member of the High Council of Justice for two consecutive terms.

Ukraine will introduce a new surcharge for large families

The Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine proposes to introduce a new type of social benefits – benefits for children who are raised in large families.

It is proposed to pay the social payment from April 1, 2019 to improve the financial situation of large families.

Each family with three or more children receive a monthly allowance in the amount of the subsistence minimum. Help will be paid until children are 6 years old.

The size of social surcharge is: from April 1, 2019 – 1626 UAH; from July 1, 2019 – 1 699 UAH; from December 1, 2019 – 1 779 UAH.

As of the beginning of 2019 there were over 334 thousand large families in Ukraine. 1 136,7 thousand children are raised in these families.

The right to receive assistance will be available to all large families – for 158,8 thousand children under the age of six.