On December 30, the Constitutional Court decided that...

On December 30, the Constitutional Court decided that the death penalty is not in compliance with the Constitution. The Court ruled that the death penalty was in contravention of Item 1, Art. 27, of the Constitution, which stipulates that every citizen has "the inherent human right to life," and Art. 28, which lays down that "no person may be subjected to torture, or to cruel, inhuman, or humiliating treatment or punishment." The Court also pointed out that a ban on capital punishment was among the obligations Ukraine undertook as a condition of joining the Council of Europe. Therefore, parts of Art. 24 of the Criminal Code, which disclose the usage of the death penalty are unconstitutional. The main issue was how to ensure the implementation of the ruling made by the Constitutional Court. The Ukrainian Parliament was to bring the country's Criminal Code into line with the Constitutional Court's ruling, which will be enforced throughout the territory of Ukraine and is not subject to appeal. The Constitutional Court started the hearings on June 30, on the representation of 51 people's deputies as to whether a number of provisions of articles of the Criminal Code regarding the death penalty were constitutional. MPs turned to the Constitutional Court after they virtually lost the hope of settling the problem of the abrogation of the death penalty through the Supreme Council. Four hundred and nineteen persons were awaiting execution in the country. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry believed that by the PACE session in January 2000 the Parliament would have ratified Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The draft of the new Criminal Code which was shortly to be passed by Ukraine's supreme legislative body, substitutes capital punishment with life imprisonment.