Reg. 81399                            To the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,

of April 22, 2010                    Litvin V.M.

_____________________________________________

Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,

5 Hrushevskoho Str, 01008, Kyiv,

Ukraine

Copies:

To the Head of the Faction of the Party of Regions in Verkhovna Rada

To the Head of the Committee on freedom of speech and information

(The main committee in considering the Bill 6299 of April 13, 2010)

To the heads of other committees responsible for consideration of the Bill 6299 of April 13, 2010:

To the Head of the Committee on legislative support of law enforcement

To the Head of the Committee on budget

To the Head of the Committee on rules of parliamentary procedure,  ethics and support to work of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

To the Head of the Committee on European integration

To the Head of the Committee on Culture and Spirituality

To the Head of the Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and International Relations

Dear deputies,

We would like to appeal to you with reference to the draft legislation No. 6299 of 13.04.2010 “On amending of some legislative acts (as to prohibition of activity of extrasensory individuals, sorcerers, fortune-tellers, chiromancers and future (fortune) predicting services)) ”

We apply for considering of the arguments listed below touching upon undesired consequences that can arise after passing the above mentioned bill in the issued edition.

1 . The first question in this respect is, who will judicially qualify whether an action is a “magic techniques and ceremonies” ? As far as these actions are not defined neither in the draft legislation, nor in other official documents, there appears room for random actions concerning citizens and public organizations on the part of the executive power.

2 . Furthermore the clause of the bill

  “future (fortune) predicting services  – is the activity of fortune-tellers, chiromancers, astrologers {emphasize added}, seers, sorcerers, clairvoyants, soothsayers, prophets and other persons who, with the use of fortune-telling, palmistry, numerology and magic ceremonies and techniques try to guess the future (fortune) or unknown facts about persons, objects or other phenomena (weather, harvest, etc.), as well as allegedly correct the future (fortune) of a person and his/her problems, kill the hoodoo with the use of magic techniques and ceremonies” in point of fact:

2.1. Immediately prohibits the activity of all religious confessions including the Christian ones as long as:

– ALL religious ceremonies connect the human being with Spiritual dimensions that is they are the field where magic ceremonies and techniques are used , which still don’t have any judicial definition . For instance, Christianity has a number of sacraments such as christening, oblation etc.

2.2. Doesn’t exclude the possibility of further activity of the so called “sorcerers” etc. under other names , for instance suffice it to call oneself a folk healer .

2.3. Because of the judicial ambiguity of the prohibited actions the bill actually bans :

– all kinds of folk medicine;

–utterance of one’s considerations , in any manner connected with the analysis of development of the state of health or other aspects of future;

–education work , for any statement concerning possible development and consequences of deeds may be interpreted as “predicting future (fortune)”. The fact that such actions are made by a person who doesn’t call him or herself a “prophet” or a similar term, doesn’t change the core of the subject, as far as no offender calls himself a criminal. 

2.4. If a person doesn’t refer him/herself to any of the professions stated in the bill, does he or she have the right to speak about the future? Considering the ambiguity of the term “magic ceremonies and techniques” , that prohibits all kinds of predictions , including meteorology, medical prognostics of course of diseases etc.

For instance the clause “numerology – defining the fortune or future of a person through studying numbers and dates ” prohibits the usage of statistic prediction methods applied in economy , when figures are analyzed with respect to dates.

3 . Article 34 of the Ukrainian Constitution says, that every one is guaranteed the right to freedom of thought and speech, to free expression of one’s views and beliefs.

If a person should have the right to believe in the Christian God, Yahweh or Krishna and speak about his belief, than:

3.1. who can deprive the person of the right to believe in the influence of stars or other things , unknown to the modern science?

3.2. Who can forbid a person to express his or her considerations and exchange information connected with belief ?

Moreover , the issued bill has a demonstratively discriminative character as for the representatives of the above mentioned professions, because it permits distribution of any kind of information, even highly inadequate, not granting such professionals the right to defend themselves:

“except those documentary films that narrate about negative impact of extrasensory individuals, sorcerers, fortune-tellers, chiromancers and services relative to telling the future (fortune)”

4 . Furthermore, the terms “activity” and “services” may only be referred to judicially registered professions, but as for now they overwhelmingly are not registered.

Therefore the bill provide conditions for random interpretation by investigating and legal bodies of expressions of any person in respect of the above mentioned topics – in public, in press and literature.

5 . In view of the above mentioned reasons we would like you to consider, that the passing of the bill in its issued form can drastically inflict the citizens of Ukraine and its image as a legal state . 

In particular we deem that amidst the certain strain between the religious confessions, present in Ukraine, passing the bill in its issued edition can cause new unpredictable consequences of negative nature.

Obviously the best way to resist the unfair fortune-tellers is publicity and wide outreach activities. As for the legal bans , they will not be effective in this case .

6. Obviously the aim of the law is fighting the unfair citizens, who fraudulently, taking advantage of the people’s weaknesses, strive to seize material benefits of the latter. We believe that amending the Code of Ukraine about administrative offences will not have the effect, necessary in fighting swindlers. Furthermore the Penal Code of Ukraine already foresees the liability for actions of this kind (article 190).

7. Article 41 of the Ukrainian Constitution grants the citizens the right to freely dispose the fruits of their intellectual work. In case of passing the bill thousands of astrologers will not be able to freely dispose the fruits of their intellectual work – knowledge, developments, scientific works, that have appeared as a result of many years of work and millenary work of their predecessors. 

8. Agreeing with the necessity of fighting the unfair citizens, we would like to note, that astrology is one of the oldest sciences that appeared long ago in Mesopotamia and had great influence in Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Rome, India, the Islamic world and Europe. The ancient science, astrology, on the certain stage of its development stimulated the progress of astronomy, mathematics, meteorology and other areas of knowledge. Hence the legislators actually want to ban one of the oldest sciences that immediately influenced the progress of the mankind. 

9. Article 43 of the Constitution of Ukraine states that every one has the right to work, that includes the possibility to earn by means of profession, he or she can freely choose or freely agree to do.

The State provides conditions for full execution of the right to work by the citizens, guarantees equal rights in choosing profession and occupation, carries out programs of professional and technical education, training and retraining of specialists according to the social needs.

The bill fully deprives a couple of thousands astrologers all over the country of the right to the chosen occupation.

The bill also violates article 53 and article 54 of the Constitution, that provide the right to education and liberty of literary, artistic, scientific and technical creation.

Hundreds of astrological schools have long ago been opened and function all over the country, astrologers constantly issue books and periodicals.

10. Part 2 of article 19 of the Constitution of Ukraine says, that the public and local authorities, their officials are obliged to act only on the ground of and within the scope of their powers, foreseen by the Constitution and Laws of Ukraine. 

As long as the bill contradicts the effective Constitution of Ukraine (articles 21-24, 34, 35, 41, 43, 53, 54), we believe that it certainly cannot be passed in the issued edition.

Approved unanimously by the Coordinational Council (minutes N. 4 of April 15, 2010) of Kharkov     Regional Informational and Astrological Centre

The Head of the Coordinational Council   (signature, seal)  S.V. Smelyakov

Address of The Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine

Mailing Address : Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine , 5 Hrushevskoho Str , Kyiv, 01008, Ukraine

( it is suitable for all Deputies that are enlisted below )

Web-address : www.rada.gov.ua

Home page (in English) http://portal.rada.gov.ua/rada/control/en/index

Constitution of Ukraine (in English) http://gska2.rada.gov.ua/site/const_eng/constitution_eng.htm

The officials of the Verkhovna Rada and Profile Committees:

V. M. Lytvyn, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

O.S. Yefremov Yefremov.Oleksandr@rada.gov.ua ,

the Head of the Faction of The Party of Regions

(the major Faction in the coalition Government)

Profile Committees:

Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information , gr_rada@i.ua

A.V. S hevchenko   Shevchenko.Andrii@rada.gov.ua , First deputy Head of the Committee

Secretary hyryk@rada.gov.ua

Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement

V.D. S hvets   Shvets.Viktor@rada.gov.ua , the Head of the Committee

S ecretary vasilkevich@rada.gov.ua

Committee on Budget

A.L. Derkach   Derkach.Mykola@rada.gov.ua , the Head of the Committee    

Secretary   dzhyndzhyrysta@rada.gov.ua

Committee on Rules of Parliamentary Procedure, Ethics and Support to Work of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

O.S. Yefremov   Yefremov.Oleksandr@rada.gov.ua , the Head of the Committee    

Secretary   Anatoliy.Orzhakhovskyi@rada.gov.ua

Committee on European Integration

B.I. Tarasiuk   Tarasiuk.Borys@rada.gov.ua , the Head of the Committee             

Secretary   Plachkova.Svitlana@rada.gov.ua

Committee on Culture and Spirituality

V.O. Yavorivsky Yavorivskyi.Volodymyr@rada.gov.ua , the Head of the Committee          

Secretary   kolesnichenko-bratun@rada.gov.ua

Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and International Relations

O.O. Zarubinsky   Zarubinskyi.Oleh@rada.gov.ua , the Head of the Committee             

Secretary   chihrin@rada.gov.ua

Committee on Justice 

S.V. Kivalov   Kivalov.Serhii@rada.gov.ua , the Head of the Committee                     

Secretary   ostapets@rada.gov.ua    

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