Ukraine’s former ombudswoman Nina Korpachova had repeatedly assured media people that most VR factions would help re-elect her before she realized that she had to step down. She did, leaving two contestants on the home stretch: Yevhen Zakharov, a human rights activist (nominated a month back), and Valeria Lutkovska (Party of Regions).
Lutkovska is Ukraine’s official defense counsel in the European Court, specializing in cases involving individual complaints against the Ukrainian state. After she was relieved of her post at the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, following a conflict with the then Justice Minister, Serhii Holovaty, she worked for the law firm Lavrynovych & Partners. In other words, she is one of those the Party of Regions knows and cares about.
Last week, the Human Rights Committee put forth Zakharov after a vote of six yeas and one nay (that nay came from a Party of Regions member, considering that the Committee includes four opposition and as many majority members). Two voted for Lutkovska, four voted against, and one abstained. Three of the nays belonged to the BYuT members and one came from Eduard Pavlenko (Party of Regions).
There is, however, a difference between the Committee and the Verkhovna Rada vote. VR majority coordinator Mykhailo Chechetov believes Lutkovska will win – this time he won’t have to wave a hand because the choice will be made by secret ballot.
“The Committee’s resolution is informative; they inform the MPs, period. The final decision will be made by the members of parliament, by secret ballot. We will vote for Ms. Lutkovska and I think she will win,” he told The Day.
Yevhen Zakharov is way ahead of Valeria Lutkovska in terms of professional experience, says BYuT’s Serhii Sobolev: “Zakharov would win this race in any democratic country where human rights are upheld in the first place. Here the final decision will be made according to our rules of the game. Zakharov comes first professionally, but Yanukovych’s political expediency says Lutkovska is a doubtless winner.”
In fact, Yevhen Zakharov isn’t sure about his victory: “Here everything is overpoliticized. I’m supposed to be an opposition candidate. Our opposition has even fewer seats in parliament than five years back. Lutkovska stands a better chance a priori, as evidenced by all those verbal attacks against her. There are none against me. This means that no one regards me as a serious contender. The impression is that the two of us will fail in the end.”
It is true that Lutkovska receives quite a few critical remarks, mainly because she lacks experience in the human rights domain. Zakharov has this kind of experience and to spare. The big question is whether this experience will help him win the VR vote. Most likely the outcome of this competition will become clear today.
Ukraine’s next ombudsperson will have no end of work, considering all those pressing issues that must be resolved without delay.
The first one is, of course, militia [police] brutality. Last year’s expert estimates point to 800,000 victims – in other words, someone is exposed to this brutality every 40 minutes. The next one is detention conditions [and those in the Ukrainian prisons]. The third one concerns Ukraine’s political prisoners, although no human rights champion is likely to be of help in this realm.
