“The judges invited Ukraine to “urgently reform its legislation and administrative practice,” to establish the requirements for the organisation and holding of peaceful demonstrations as well as the grounds for their restriction.
The case concerned a human rights activist Oleksiy Oleksandrovych Vyerentsov, who complained in particular that he had been sentenced to three days of administrative detention for holding a demonstration without permission, even though such permission was not required by domestic law,” is underlined in a statement.
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According to the statement, the court considered that the case disclosed a structural problem, namely a legislative lacuna concerning freedom of assembly which has remained in Ukraine since the end of the Soviet Union. Indeed, the only existing document currently establishing a procedure for holding demonstrations is a Decree adopted in 1988 by the USSR (the 1988 Decree), which is not generally accepted by the Ukrainian courts as still applicable.
