Adopted by the Venice Commission at its 68th Plenary Session (Venice, 13-14 October 2006) on the basis of comments by

Mr Christoph GRABENWARTER (Member, Austria)

Mr Hubert HAENEL (Substitute Member, France)

Mr Giorgio MALINVERNI (Member, Switzerland)

Mr David GOLDBERGER (OSCE/ODIHR Expert)

I. Introduction

1. By a letter of 2 June 2006, the then Minister of Justice of Ukraine requested the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR to carry out a joint assessment of the Draft law on peaceful assemblies (CDL(2006)063).

2. Messrs. Grabenwarter, Haenel and Malinverni were appointed as rapporteurs for the Venice Commission. Mr David Goldberger, Professor of Law at the Ohio State University College of Law, has been contracted by the OSCE/ODIHR for the purpose of preparing comments on the Draft law under consideration. His comments have been prepared with the assistance of Ms Barbara O’Toole and Mr Robert McCarthy.

3. A meeting was held in Kiev on 19 September 2006 between representatives of the Ukrainian authorities, including Deputy Minister of Justice Mr Dmytro Kotlar, and Mr Malinverni on behalf of the Venice Commission and Mr Denis Petit, Head of the Legislative Support Unit (Democratization Department, OSCE/ODIHR), on behalf of the latter. The purpose of the meeting was to have an exchange of views on the Draft law in light of the preliminary opinions prepared by the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR.

4. The present opinion, which was prepared jointly by the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR on the basis of comments drafted by the rapporteurs and expert, was adopted by the Venice Commission at its 68th Plenary Session (Venice, 13-14 October 2006).

5. In the preparation of the present opinion, a draft law prepared by a group of Ukrainian NGOs was also taken into account, as specifically requested by the Minister of Justice. This Opinion was prepared based on an unofficial English translation of the two drafts.

Text of the Opinion in PDF format:  pdf-file (211.003 kb)