On 16 November DRI presented its “Ukraine Legislative Monitor”, a web tool available in Ukrainian and English. The Monitor shows the status, authors, and main content of the (draft) laws related to major political and legal reforms such as the constitutional, electoral, judicial, decentralisation, prosecutor office, and political human rights. Along with presenting the features and methodology of the tool, DRI collected feedback and discussed with journalists, civil society, experts, and political officials the major challenges of reforms’ monitoring in Ukraine.
“One of DRI goals in Ukraine is to inform about political reforms and democratic changes. The Legislative Monitor allows citizens to follow the progress of legal initiatives without getting lost in the “spam” of numerous draft laws” – introduced the chart Mykola Gnatovsky, DRI Senior Constitutional Analyst. Participants agreed that the monitor and similar tools are very much needed and useful to understand the on-going transition. “DRI Monitor allows not only to measure the quantity of progress law-making but also its quality” – pointed Andriy Kulykov, the journalist of “Hromadske Radio”. “The Monitor could also bring parliamentarians accountable in front of citizens”, he added.
Svitlana Matviyenko from the think tank “Laboratory of Legal Initiatives” argued that the Monitor could facilitate an internal reform of the parliament as it allows to track deficiencies in the current legislative process. All speakers highlighted that the internal reform of Ukraine’s parliament and change in the political culture is very urgent. “The parliament is a reflection of political culture in every country, Ukraine is not an exception” – mentioned Fabio Della Piazza, Head of Political Section at the EU delegation to Ukraine.
Michael Schmidmayr, Policy Officer at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Ukraine, added that the Monitor will not replace the existing tools and methods of monitoring, but it will contribute to its improvement and efficiency.
The tool received positive feedback from the audience and will be monthly updated by DRI. It is also available on the website of Yurydychna Gazetta (Ukrainian Legal News). The Monitor has been put together by DRI’s Ukraine project team based on the information from the Verkhovna Rada’s website and other open sources.