The heads of state and leaders of parliamentary political forces were invited to the final plenary session. However, the CAU organizing committee received a response about the impossibility of participating in the session only from the President of Ukraine and the leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine; the rest of the politicians simply ignored the public forum.
The participants of the meeting demand that officials and politicians conduct an honest, transparent and democratic election campaign based on competition of programs, rather than speculative or manipulative technologies, and especially not those aimed at splitting Ukrainian society. "We will conduct a detailed analysis of election programs and the results of additional questionnaires of all election headquarters regarding their understanding of specific ways to solve the most important social problems. Attempts to ignore the public interest will be regarded by us as the absence of a position or incompetence of specific political forces," the members of the CAU organizing committee reported.
In addition, the CAU proposes a fundamentally different format for pre-election debates, in which politicians discuss not with each other about everything and nothing, but with independent experts in specific areas of economic, political and social life. "If cases of ignoring or demagogic brush-offs by politicians are the majority, we reserve the right to urge citizens to boycott the elections as absurd, that is, as those that have no rational justification for the very choice," the press conference participants stated.
The CAU press conference was attended by organizing committee members Olha Aivazovska (OPORA Civic Network), Olesia Arkhypska (Secretary of the Organizing Committee, International Renaissance Foundation), Yevhen Bystrytsky (International Renaissance Foundation), Ihor Burakovsky (Institute for Political Studies and Economic Consultations), Volodymyr Horbach (Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation), Ihor Kohut (Laboratory of Legislative Initiatives) and Anatolii Pinchuk (Ukrainian Center for the Development of Foreign Economic Relations).
The Civic Assembly of Ukraine was held with the organizational and financial support of the International Renaissance Foundation.
Contact person: Olesia Arkhypska, Secretary of the Organizing Committee, tel. (+380 44) 231-2462
Volyn was represented at the all-Ukrainian CAU forum by seven delegates - representatives of public organizations of the region: - Mykhailo Shelep, Regional Coordinator of the Civic Assembly of Ukraine in the Volyn region, head of the Volyn Regional Youth Public Organization "Association of Young Reformers," - Yarosh Oksana, director of the Volyn Regional Public Organization "Gender Center," - Novosad Oleksandr, head of the Volyn Regional Public Organization "Association of Young Political Scientists and Politicians," - Penko Viktor, director of the Public Organization "Institute for Analysis of State and Regional Policy," - Shchur Mykhailo, director of the Volyn Regional Charitable Fund "Oleh Chernetskyi," - Boiar Roman, representative of the Lutsk City Public Organization "Center for Political Analysis and Election Consulting," - Shevchuk Viktoriia, representative of the Volyn Regional Organization "Youth Nationalist Congress"
Resolution of the Civic Assembly of Ukraine We, the participants of the Civic Assembly of Ukraine, which represents about 350 public associations, state that the political crisis of 2007 was inevitable and was determined by a number of political, legal, social and cultural factors. The political crisis in Ukraine did not begin on March 31, 2007, and it will not end with the elections on September 30. The current political crisis is not only the failure of constitutional reform, dubious legitimacy, the collapse of constitutional justice, political corruption, the dissolution of parliament and snap elections. These are merely the results of a state-building process without reliance on civil society and without consideration of the political, economic and social interests of the majority of citizens. This is a consequence of the political elite's inability to form a clear strategy for Ukraine's development in a competitive, rapidly globalizing world. This is a consequence of the inherited Soviet form of Ukrainian statehood, a failure to understand the interconnectedness of own and national interests, as well as the state's ignoring of the primacy of realizing human and citizen rights. All of this constitutes the root causes of the current Ukrainian crisis. This crisis is a challenge not only for the authorities and political environments. It is a challenge for the entire society and, first of all, for us, representatives of hundreds of civic organizations from all regions of Ukraine. The main danger of the current political crisis is the absence of rules of the game that are shared by all citizens and observed by all politicians. At the level of central government, an actual destruction of the legal field has occurred, and accordingly, of the legal framework of the state, which is the Constitution; a complete alienation of power from citizens has occurred, and the transformation of power into a commodity. Therefore, we, the participants of the Civic Assembly of Ukraine, aware of our responsibility before all citizens of Ukraine, understanding the uniqueness of the historical moment of the approaching snap parliamentary elections and the need to revise the Constitution of Ukraine, declare: The Constitution is the basic rules approved and observed by society, and on the basis of which the state develops. Ukraine needs a new Constitution - not a compromise of elites or clans, but a genuine new social contract. The new Constitution must fulfill the citizens' demand for the establishment and development of the Ukrainian state. That is precisely why the Constitution must be developed not by the Presidential Secretariat and adopted not by the Verkhovna Rada or a manipulative referendum, but exclusively by a Constitutional Assembly - a constituent body that actually establishes a new republic, a state of citizens. We demand from the President of Ukraine, other officials and leading political forces: 1. Conducting an honest, transparent and democratic election campaign based on competition of programs, rather than speculative or manipulative technologies, and especially not those aimed at splitting society. In order to inform voters about the realism of pre-election promises and the availability of detailed programs for the country's development, we instruct the CAU organizing committee to conduct a survey (questionnaire) of participants in the election process and a comparative analysis and to inform the public about its results. We appeal to the media with a request to facilitate the publication of these results. 2. Adoption of amendments to the Constitution which would provide for the convening of a constituent assembly - a Constitutional Assembly for the adoption of a new Constitution of Ukraine, whose delegates will not have the right to be elected to any state bodies for 10 years and will adopt the fundamental law not for themselves or their parties, but for the citizens of the state. In the event of non-fulfillment of this demand, we will initiate a direct-action referendum in accordance with Art. 72 of the Constitution of Ukraine, regarding the amendment of Art. 155, 156 of the Constitution of Ukraine to introduce the institution of a Constitutional Assembly. 3. Conducting public discussions of concepts and drafts of the Constitution of Ukraine and the preparation of a new constitution as a new social contract between the citizens of Ukraine and an effective model of state governance capable of ensuring the successful self-development of Ukrainian society and a competitive economy. 4. Introduction of amendments to the legislation of Ukraine that would provide for: • The creation of effective instruments of citizens' influence on government bodies and citizens' control over their actions and the actions of their officials, in particular through the adoption of a new version of the Law "On Citizens' Associations." • Returning to citizens the right of direct participation in elections without the mediation of parties, introducing a system of open regional lists or partial return of the majoritarian electoral system (primarily in the formation of local self-government bodies), abolishing the party imperative mandate. • Creating effective mechanisms of accountability for representatives of power elected by citizens for non-fulfillment and non-observance of pre-election programs, including deprivation of office or mandate. • Reforming the public administration system, building a system of independent judiciary, ensuring the independence of special state bodies that must ensure the realization of citizens' rights, freedom of speech and a balance between power and opposition. As activists of public organizations of Ukraine, we will: • carry out broad educational measures to inform Ukrainian society about the threats that exist before it, and proposals for overcoming them; • conduct public influence campaigns for the adoption of amendments to the legislation of Ukraine listed in item 4, the convening of a Constitutional Assembly, the creation and implementation of a strategy for Ukraine's development. • activate citizens' participation in public life and in the governance of the community, region, and country; • act as an initiator of partnership between various institutions and propose effective models for solving local, regional and national problems, including in the form of specific legislative and regulatory proposals; • monitor the actions of government bodies and political forces on the part of society; • protect the rights of citizens of Ukraine at all levels; Fellow citizens! Our and your non-indifference, activity and consistency are the key to leading Ukraine out of the crisis and building a successful Ukrainian state based on the interests of civil society.