The Open Dialogue Foundation participated in a discussion entitled “The vetting of the state authorities: the Ukrainian legislation and international experience”, organised at the Respublica Institute in Kiev. Agnieszka Piasecka from the ODF presented both recommendations developed by our experts and her own observations.
In the discussion, the floor was taken by a representative of the Temporary Committee for the Verification of Judges, Petro Varishko and Sasha Drik from the Civil Vetting Committee. Experiences from the Czech lustration was shared by a lawyer who collaborates with an international organisation “We – Ukrainians”, Ivan Betz. In turn, Myhaylo Kamenev, working with the Respublika Institute, presented laws and regulations which ordinary citizens may refer to in order to support the process of vetting and bring officials to justice for corruption and other offences.
The discussion focused on ways to improve the functioning of the Law ‘On cleansing of the state authorities’ and enhance cooperation between various legislative initiatives, adopted by the Ukrainian parliament. At the same time, experts jointly admitted that although the optimum compromise has yet to be achieved, progressive improvement in the quality of public debate in Ukraine can already be observed.