Law of Ukraine № 316-VIII of access to the archives of the repressive organs of the communist totalitarian regime in the context of democratic western traditions

  • Yuliia Yurynets National Aviation University
Keywords: archives of repressive regimes repressive organs, agents of repression, offering repressive bodies, the International Council on Archives, the right people

Abstract

The article analyzes several aspects of the Law of Ukraine of 09.04.2015 № 316-VIII «On access to the archives of the repressive organs of the communist totalitarian regime, 1917-1991» in the context of the relevant Recommendation No. R (2000) 13 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on a European Policy on Access to Archives and the report of the International Council on Archives (ICA) for UNESCO's «Archives of security forces of the former repressive regimes».

  1. According to the report of ICA, the public right to determine the persons responsible for crimes against human rights prevails over the right to privacy with respect to these persons. Law № 316-VIII expressly provides that archive information repressive bodies of such persons is an open access to such information cannot be limited to any grounds. At the same time a report ACI considers it necessary to take into account the right of persons who were not in the service of repressive bodies to prove (if necessary) these facts. Individuals should be able to make changes to this statement or in personal files. They should be included in the dossier, but clearly separated from documents stored repressive regime, and that should not change. It is proposed to make the appropriate amendments to the Law № 316-VIII.
  2. According to the report ICA, personal dossiers of victims of repression should be closed from public access for a legally prescribed period, except in the special permit persons to which they relate, or their heirs. Individual rights of the victims of political repression take precedence over historical investigation. Such guarantees are contained in the Law № 316-VIII. However, such persons are also invited to provide the right to make additions to your file.
  3. Revealed some inconsistencies of the law Recommendation No. R (2000) 13 on declassified that can provide special services the opportunity to continue to hide behind secrecy to limit access.
  4. It is proposed to provide the documents of repressive bodies of the status of belonging to the National Archival Fund; It drew attention to the need to address the issue of the return of the archives of repressive bodies of personal documents; the need to issue a denial of access to documents only in writing, according to Recommendation No. R (2000) 13.

The author concludes that the law № 316-VIII is of great importance to clarify the historical truth and objective evaluation of the role of repressive bodies of Soviet power in the history of Ukraine, the Law in its main provisions of the relevant Western democratic traditions. At the same time, some important issues remain unresolved, that the law needs to be improved.

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Published
2019-02-22
How to Cite
Yurynets, Y. (2019). Law of Ukraine № 316-VIII of access to the archives of the repressive organs of the communist totalitarian regime in the context of democratic western traditions. Administrative Law and Process, (2(12), 6-15. Retrieved from https://applaw.net/index.php/journal/article/view/233