Policy

Fair mobilization: Ukrainians may find out which politicians and activists are fugitives

The Verkhovna Rada has registered a draft law on amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine to ensure the openness of military registration data of certain categories of persons. This is reported on the website of the Verkhovna Rada, Komersant ukrainskyi reports.

The bill was initiated by MP Maksym Buzhansky. The document has already been sent to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Human Rights, De-occupation and Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, National Minorities and International Relations.

Arguments in favor of adopting the draft law

The need to adopt the draft law is justified by its initiator by the need to ensure the openness of military registration data of certain categories of persons, given that the war has particularly sharpened the attention of Ukrainian society to the unconditional fulfillment of military duty by every citizen of Ukraine, and therefore any publications or statements about a person’s evasion of this duty are negatively perceived in society, lead to its polarization and undermine the belief of citizens that military duty is truly the only and unconditional duty. This is especially true for national public figures and civic activists.

One of the general mechanisms that will allow avoiding false accusations and persecution of the elite of Ukrainian society for not fulfilling military duty, as noted in the explanatory note, should be to ensure the openness of certain military records of these categories of persons, as such a step will allow any interested person to check whether there is a real evasion of military duty or an attempt to falsely accuse and discredit them.

What changes are proposed by the draft law?

The Law of Ukraine “On Personal Data Protection” should be amended to provide that personal and service data of conscripts, persons liable for military service and reservists who are national public figures, heads or members of governing bodies of public associations, charitable organizations, as well as family members of the above persons, shall not be classified as restricted information

The draft law will retain limited access to particularly sensitive information about an individual, such as place of residence or date of birth, etc., similar to the Law of Ukraine “On Prevention of Corruption” and the retention of limited access to certain information in a person’s declaration.

The draft law also amends the Law of Ukraine “On the Unified State Register of Conscripts, Persons Liable for Military Service and Reservists” to prevent discrepancies between different laws in regulating the same issues related to personal data.