The draft law on the establishment of the position of military ombudsman was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada as urgent. This was announced on May 8 by the President’s Commissioner for the Rights of Servicemen, Olga Reshetilova. She emphasized the importance of this step for the protection of the rights and freedoms of military personnel.
This is reported by Kyiv24
“The individual and their rights and freedoms as the main value is what fundamentally distinguishes us from the enemy and what will ultimately help us to win. I am grateful to the president for this, without exaggeration, historic step. Thank you to the Minister of Defense, the officers of the Central Office for the Protection of Servicemen’s Rights of the Ministry of Defense, the experts, and representatives of civil society who contributed to the development of the draft law. I sincerely hope for the support of the members of parliament.”
Main Provisions of the Draft Law
The document provides a clear mechanism for submitting and reviewing complaints from servicemen, as well as the procedure for conducting inspections in military units and military management bodies in cases of violations of servicemen’s rights. In addition, the draft law defines the procedure for preparing conclusions and the interaction of the military ombudsman with other state bodies, which is expected to promote greater transparency and efficiency in the system for protecting the rights of military personnel.
On December 30, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree appointing Olga Reshetilova (Kobylynska) as the President’s Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Servicemen and their Families. On the same day, he announced that she would be responsible for preparing the draft law on the military ombudsman.
Shortly after her appointment, on January 1, Reshetilova reported that she immediately received a large number of complaints that needed to be addressed promptly, indicating the relevance and importance of establishing the corresponding institution.