You're reading: Parliament at first reading sets rules for designating terrorist organizations

Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has approved in the first reading a government bill on declaring which courts and entities may recognize groups as terrorist organizations.

270 lawmakers backed the respective bill No. 1840 on Jan. 27, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported.

The bill stipulates that the Cabinet of Ministers is the subject of this legislative initiative, and that the bill was initiated by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

An explanatory note to the bill says that Ukrainian laws don’t stipulate the procedure for designating an organization as a terrorist one. Therefore, the bill introduces amendments to the Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine, determining that cases to designate organizations as terrorist ones are under the jurisdiction of the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine as the court of first instance, and rulings issued by the court on designated terrorist organizations are subject to immediate execution.

“In addition, it was proposed to supplement the Code [of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine] with a new article, No. 1837, on the peculiarities of the procedure of appeal of prosecutor’s agencies on designating terrorist organizations,” the documents said.

Moreover, it was proposed to introduce amendments to the law “On Security Service of Ukraine,” granting the SBU the right to initiate a lawsuit on recognizing an organization as a terrorist one, as part of measures to combat terrorism.

The bill also supplements the law “On combating terrorism” with a new article, the provisions of which will regulate the issue of recognizing terrorist organizations.

“In particular, the amendments are to be made in item 1, Part 1 of Article 4 of the Ukrainian law on the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, according to which if the terrorist activities of an organization are brought to crisis situation that menaces the national security of Ukraine, such an organization might be designated as a terrorist one,” reads an explanatory note.