"Find a Place for Lyuda." How Deputy Denisova Became Ombudsperson

"Find a Place for Lyuda." How Deputy Denisova Became Ombudsperson

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine appointed People’s Deputy Lyudmyla Denisova as the Commissioner for Human Rights. This decision was supported by 280 parliamentarians. However, Denisova will now have to say goodbye to her parliamentary mandate, but apparently, that prospect does not scare her.

"I ask you to submit a motion to remove Lyudmyla Denisova from the powers of a People's Deputy of Ukraine, and we will be able to vote as early as today after the next item on the agenda," said Speaker of Parliament Andriy Parubiy after the vote.

Lyudmyla Denisova will replace Valeriya Lutkovska, who continued to hold the position for more than a year after her formal term expired.

The predecessor’s story

Valeriya Lutkovska was elected to the post of Commissioner for Human Rights on 24 April 2012. At that time she was the only candidate. 252 members of parliament voted in favor of Lutkovska's election. However, opposition members tried to challenge the appointment, claiming that Lutkovska was elected unlawfully. Back then, People's Deputy from Our Ukraine and deputy head of the counting commission Volodymyr Vyazivskyi stated that the ballots for the secret vote lacked the signatures of the head and secretary of the counting commission, and therefore were produced with violations. In response, then Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn said the opposition’s accusations were unfounded. "I assert and officially declare that there were no violations, and this is confirmed by the fact that 16 members of the counting commission, that is, all who were present and participated in the work of the counting commission, signed the relevant protocol, and only one deputy wrote that he has remarks," Lytvyn said at the time.

Lutkovska's election in 2012 took place under extraordinary circumstances

It is worth noting that Lutkovska was engaged in human rights work even before her appointment. Before becoming ombudsperson, she held the position of Commissioner of the Cabinet of Ministers for issues related to the European Court of Human Rights from 25 January 2011.

Lutkovska's powers were supposed to end on 27 April of last year. Parliament was supposed to elect her successor by secret ballot no later than 6 June 2017. However, this did not happen, so Lutkovska remained Commissioner for Human Rights.

Why was the rotation delayed?

Deputies could not move to a vote on a new ombudsperson due to horse-trading over posts and a complete lack of mutual trust between the coalition titans: the Petro Poroshenko Bloc (BPP) and the People’s Front. The appointment of the ombudsperson was part of a package that included two other vacancies: the head of the Accounting Chamber and the National Bank. And while BPP had no objections to Denisova, and the People’s Front agreed with Bankova's candidate for head of the NBU (Yakiv Smolii today took Valeriya Hontareva’s place), what to do about the chairmanship of the Accounting Chamber remained unclear. For that seat BPP, most actively the UDAR of Klitschko group, proposed Valeriy Patskan (partner of Viktor Baloha, — "Glavcom"). The Front members, however, wanted to see Ruslan Lukyanchuk in that position, whom they associate with Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Turchynov.

Why Denisova specifically

Even before Lutkovska’s formal term expired, the relevant committee recommended considering three candidates for the Commissioner position – Denisova from the People’s Front, Serhiy Alekseyev from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and Andriy Mamalyha from the Radical Party. Each of them collected more than a hundred parliamentary signatures — the law requires at least a quarter of the deputies. No open competitions, which human rights activists demanded, took place. From the start Denisova looked like the favorite. For the People’s Front the ombudsperson’s post suddenly became a matter of principle. Yatsenyuk and Avakov’s associates even tried to push legislative changes so that the ombudsperson would be elected by an open vote — that would have reduced the likelihood of a "swap" in the personnel bargaining.

Head of the Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations Hryhoriy Nemyria noted today that the issue of electing an ombudsperson had fallen out of the legal field, in particular due to a collision regarding the voting procedure: the law on the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner provides for a secret ballot by deputies using ballots, while the regulations provide for an open procedure. At the same time, he voiced the committee's position on restarting the procedure for electing the ombudsperson. Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Andriy Parubiy, in turn, said that there is an explanation from the procedural committee on the advisability of conducting the election of the ombudsperson by open vote in accordance with the regulations.

"I myself do not understand why we clung to this ombudsperson so much," a People's Front interlocutor of "Glavcom" said last year. "Maybe they just need to find a place for Lyuda."

Lyudmyla Denisova was born in Russia, from Arkhangelsk. By nationality — Russian. Since 2005 she has been a member of the Fatherland (Batkivshchyna) party; two years later she entered the Verkhovna Rada on the list of the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko. In that same 2007 she was appointed Minister of Labor and Social Policy by parliament, serving until 11 March 2010. In the parliamentary elections of 2010 she again entered the Rada from BYuT. In October 2014 she entered parliament for the third time — this time as a member of the People’s Front. She served two months as Minister of Social Policy in Yatsenyuk’s government, after which she received another post: chair of the Committee on Social Policy. Married, has two adult daughters.

Portrait details

According to her declaration, Denisova owns an apartment of 203 square meters and a garage in Kyiv, an apartment of 119 square meters in occupied Sevastopol. She is also a co-owner of several non-residential premises in occupied Crimea. According to the declaration, the deputy is the ultimate beneficiary of six companies.

Lyudmyla Denisova is a fan of luxury accessories. Journalists repeatedly noted that she comes to the Rada with handbags from world-famous brands Givenchy, Bottega Veneta, Dior and Prada, the cost of which ranges from $1200 to $4100.

In addition, Denisova declared seven valuable jewelry items, a Swiss Ulysse Nardin watch, and an Audi A6 car of 2003 year of manufacture.

Author: Nataliya Sokyrchuk

Source: Glavcom.ua