On 25 September 2024, the Second Senate commenced deliberation of the case upon the constitutional complaint of Viktor Deineka at the public part of the plenary session in the form of written proceedings.
During the plenary session, the judge-rapporteur in the case, Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Vasyl Lemak, reported that the subject of the right to a constitutional complaint (hereinafter, the “Complainant”) had filed a petition with the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to verify the constitutionality of Article 2.5 of the Law of Ukraine “About burial and funeral case” No. 1102-IV dated 10 July 2003 (hereinafter, the “Law”).
According to Article 2.5 of the Law “a grave is a place in a cemetery, crematorium, columbarium or other building or structure intended for the burial of the dead, where the coffin with the body of the deceased or an urn with ashes is buried”.
The Complainant requests that the amended provision of the Law be verified for compliance with Articles 3.1, 8.1, 19.1, 21, 28.1, 28.2, 58.1, 68.1 of the Constitution of Ukraine.
In the constitutional complaint the Complainant argues that the right to respect for dignity belongs to every person not only during his or her life, but also after death. In his opinion, Article 2.5 of the Law, which contains the definition of the term “grave”, is unconstitutional, as it makes it impossible to hold a person legally liable for such a socially dangerous act as desecration of a grave.
The Complainant also notes that the definition of the term should cover any possible place outside the cemetery where the coffin with the body of the deceased is buried, and the Law should provide legal protection for all graves that were arranged before its adoption.
At the same time, the Complainant believes that deliberation of his constitutional complaint is necessary for reasons of public interest, since the issues raised in it concern not only many graves outside the cemeteries in which people were buried long before the adoption of the Law, but also those graves outside the cemeteries in which people who died during the large-scale armed aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine are buried.
The judge-rapporteur also informed that in order to ensure a full and objective deliberation of the case and to ensure that the Court of Ukraine delivers a reasoned decision, he had prepared inquiries to the Legal Directorate of the Secretariat of the Court, public authorities and legal experts. The judges will be informed in detail about the content of the responses at the in-camera part of the plenary session.
After examining the case file in the public part of the plenary session, the Court proceeded to the in-camera part to deliver a decision.
The plenary session is available on the Court's official website in the section “Archive of video broadcasts of sessions”.
