Total control

Lvov (Ukraine), 29 May 2012

President of Ukraine

Viktor Yanukovych

Dear Mr President!

On 17 May 2012, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted Law “On Amendments to Some Legislative Documents Related to Registration of Residence and Stay in Ukraine” № 9289. This law paves the way for total control over the citizens of Ukraine by use of data from the State Register of natural persons – taxpayers and the Voters’ Register. It contradicts Article 70 of the Tax Code of Ukraine and Article 26 of the Law of Ukraine “On the State Voters’ Register”.

The newly adopted law contains no exhaustive list of information to be registered and no strategy for data retrieval. Hereby citizen’s safety is endangered.

The law provides that a person who is beyond the administrative-territorial unit (village? town? district? region?) in which his/her place of residence is registered for more than a month shall contact the appropriate body and pay the state fee for his/her place of stay to be enrolled on the Register.

There is no such law in any other country in Europe or elsewhere in the world. The Deputies were perhaps completely unaware of what they were adopting. We may assume that this law will result in receiving chips with the number 666 in the hand or forehead (Rev. 13:16-18).

There is a danger that a person who will stay for some time away at friends or at work (e.g. in another region) and forget to be registered may be excluded from the registration and deprived of his/her property.

With the implementation of the juvenile (criminal) justice system the Child Register may become a subject of misuse: a child would go to his/her aunt or granny and the register office would prove that the child suffered parental neglect whereafter the parents would be deprived of their parental rights and the child would be taken away.

The newly adopted Law contradicts the Constitution of Ukraine, the judgments of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine of 22 September 2005 № 5-рп/2005, 30 September 2010 № 20-рп/2010, 22 December 2010 № 23-рп/2010, the Civil, Family and Tax Codes of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine “On the State Voters’ Register”.

The Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate is obliged to protect children and the family from the criminal juvenile justice system. Therefore we ask You, Mr President, under no circumstances to sign the bill.

+ Elijah

Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate

+ Methodius OSBMr        + Timothy OSBMr

Secretary Bishops

Cc to:

–         Prime-minister of Ukraine M. Azarov

–         Deputies of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

–         President of Russian Federation and deputies of State Duma of RF

–         Presidents of the EU member states and eurodeputies

–         Mass media