The Constitutional Court proceeded to an in-camera part of the plenary session in the case of the official interpretation of the concept of "decent living conditions"
On September 22, the Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine at the plenary session in the form of oral proceedings considered the case upon the constitutional petition of 142 People’s Deputies of Ukraine on the official interpretation of a separate provision of the fourth paragraph of the Preamble of the Constitution of Ukraine.
During the Court hearing, Judge-Rapporteur in the case Halyna Yurovska presented the content of the constitutional petition and the grounds for initiating constitutional proceedings.
According to her, the petitioners consider the need to clarify and officially interpret the provisions of the fourth preamble of the Basic Law, namely the combination of the words "decent living conditions" in a systematic connection with the following provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine:
- human rights and freedoms and their guarantees determine the content and direction of the state activities; the state is accountable to human for its activities; the establishment and protection of human rights and freedoms is the main duty of the state (Article 3.2);
- the state ensures the protection of the rights of all subjects of property rights and management, the social orientation of the economy; all subjects of property rights are equal before the law (Article 13.4);
- the state provides social protection to citizens of Ukraine who are serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations, as well as members of their families (Article 17.5).
The Judge-Rapporteur said that the subject of the right to constitutional petition expects from the Constitutional Court of Ukraine the official interpretation of the concept of "decent living conditions" in order to clarify which living conditions should be considered decent given the social orientation of the state economy, as well as an indicator of decent living conditions in terms of the main duty of the state to affirm and ensure human rights and freedoms.
According to the petitioners, the consistency in the understanding of the category "decent living conditions" will help eliminate legal uncertainty in the regulation of relevant public relations and improve the quality of laws passed by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in particular those relating to the social protection and social security system in the country.
Halyna Yurovska informed that inquiries were sent to the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Volodymyr Koretsky Institute of State and Law, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, National University "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy" and Uzhhorod National University to express their position on the issues raised in the constitutional petition.
During the session the Court heard explanations of the participants of the constitutional proceedings on the subject matter of constitutional control, namely: the representative of the subject of the right to constitutional petition Halyna Tretiakova, the Permanent Representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Olha Sovhyria and the Representative of the President of Ukraine to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Fedir Venislavskyi.
The participants of the constitutional proceedings - Liudmyla Denisova, Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Vitaliy Muzychenko, Deputy Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine, Head of the Research Advisory Council of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Doctor of Law Yuriy Barabash, Deputy Head of the Research Advisory Council of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Associate Professor of Constitutional Law, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Law of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Candidate of Law Serhiy Riznyk, Leading Specialist of the Department of Analytical Work and Management of the National Academy of Internal Affairs, Doctor of Law Iryna Berestova - also presented their position.
In this case, the Court proceeded to an in-camera part of the plenary session for a decision.
The public part of the plenary session is available on the official website of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine at the link: http://ccu.gov.ua/kategoriya/2020.
