How to simplify the activities of transport entrepreneurs?
An important step is the cancellation or optimization of certain types of reporting that businesses must regularly submit to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine. The review of 9 forms of mandatory reporting in the field of social security was recently carried out by the BRDO team with the support of the USAID program “Competitive Economy of Ukraine”.
What problems were identified by analysts?
How can problems be solved?
In order to discuss the results of the analysis, an online meeting organized by the State Regulatory Service of Ukraine was held recently. Representatives of economic entities in the field of transportation, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the Institute of Economics and Forecasting, as well as the expert environment, joined the discussion.
The purpose of the meeting is to make informed decisions regarding the expediency, reasonableness and order of actions proposed by the experts regarding the optimization of reporting in the field of transportation. BRDO experts proposed to make the reporting itself more relevant (forms, procedure, submission deadlines), as well as some statistical methodologies.
After discussing BRDO’s proposals with stakeholders, representatives of the State Statistics Service agreed with the expediency of deregulation initiatives. Work on their implementation in practice has already begun – so we hope that carriers will soon feel the effect of reducing regulatory pressure.
The review of 9 forms of mandatory reporting in the field of social security took place within the framework of the large-scale deregulation reform that has been ongoing in Ukraine since January 2023. With the support of the USAID Program “Competitive Economy of Ukraine”, the BRDO prepares analytics on the expediency of maintaining or canceling regulations, participates in meetings of the IWG on deregulation and the development of relevant legal acts.
Ukrainians are already used to receiving state services online, quickly and modernly, in particular through Diia. Each such service is made possible by state registries, which are the basis of the digital state.
Until recently, a significant part of the 400 Ukrainian state registers remained technologically outdated, vulnerable to cyber-attacks, or were generally kept on paper. Finally, Ukraine is ready to solve this problem systematically.
What is the Registry Platform?
Recentlt, the Diia.Engine platform was presented, a product of the joint work of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, State Special Communications Agency and SE “Ukrainian Special Systems”, created on the basis of the National Center for Reserving State Information Resources.
It is a tool that will enable public authorities to create and manage registries.
The cost of developing a registry on this platform is twice as low as compared to the usual one. The development period is two to three times shorter.
Who is already working with the Registry Platform?
Currently, 20 ministries and Central Committees use Diia.Engine to create more than 50 registers and more than 100 public services.
During the presentation, the Deputy Prime Minister for Innovation, Development of Education, Science and Technology – Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Valeria Ionan, Head of digitalization projects from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Yuliya Shappert, Head of the State Intelligence Service Yurii Shchygol, and President of the Eastern Europe Foundation Viktor Liakh spoke about the possibilities of the new platform.
BRDO CEO Oleksii Dorogan spoke about the experience of using the Platform by the BRDO team, successful cases and general impressions of the tool.
What projects does BRDO implement on the Platform of Registers?
In general, BRDO has experience in implementing 5+ projects based on the Platform. Some of them consist of 2+ registries within the same system, some require complex solutions (creation of public websites for unregistered users, extensive user role model, etc.).
“We have a wide background of using this tool, so we can confidently point out its advantages,” Oleksii noted. “This is a unified lowcode approach to software development; built-in integration tool; a multi-level support system and a unified approach to security; convenient tools for building forms and business processes, etc. I am sure that the active use of Diia.Engine will allow building a truly digital state in Ukraine at an accelerated pace.”
For a significant contribution to the development of projects on Diia.Engine, BRDO was awarded with a commendation as part of the platform presentation.
The registry platform was created with the support of the European Union as part of the EU4DigitalUA project, the Eastern Europe Fund, GIZ Ukraine, and the German government.
On September 15, 2023, as part of the project “Improving the Regulatory Environment in the Aquaculture Sector” of the USAID AGRO program, on the initiative of the State Fisheries Agency and BRDO, an online round table “Dialogue with BRDO: between the state and business” was held, in which the problems of modern aquaculture were discussed.
More than 30 participants of representatives of the business and scientific sphere joined the survey on market issues and dialogue within the framework of the round table, in particular: BU “Methodical and Technological Center for Aquaculture”, LLC “Zabirya”, PJSC “Khmelnytskrybhosp”, LLC “VISMAR AQUA” , LLC “AKVA”, LLC “Scientific and Production Center “TROUT”, VGO Community of Fishermen of Ukraine, LLC “AUGUSTUS”, LLC “Carpathian Vodogray”, FG “GOLUBA NYVA”, LLC “Persha Aqua-Promyslova Kompaniya” and others.
During the presentation by the BRDO, the main attention was paid to the discussion of the main problems of aquaculture, in particular those related to land issues, lease issues (including hydrotechnical structures), investment attraction, taxation, etc. Legislative initiatives registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine were presented, namely draft laws No. 8119 on attracting investments in the development of aquaculture in Ukraine and No. 9545, 9546 on the traceability of aquatic biological resources.
In addition, the Office presented drafts of procedures for the provision of hydrotechnical structures for the purposes of aquaculture and fishery technological reservoirs for use on lease terms.
After the presentation, the problems and prospects of Ukrainian aquaculture were discussed. The business emphasized the need to solve problems related to ownerless property (hydrotechnical structures) necessary for the effective implementation of its activities, the importance of adopting investment legislation in the field of aquaculture, as well as settling issues related to rent. Problems related to the validity period of permit documents and taxation were also discussed. Market stakeholders emphasized the need to introduce a traceability system for aquaculture products and an open, productive dialogue between them and state authorities and local self-government bodies.
The discussion of the necessary changes in the regulatory field in the field of aquaculture, as well as draft regulations aimed at improving business conditions, will continue as part of the project “Improving the Regulatory Environment in the Aquaculture Sector” of the USAID AGRO program together with BRDO in the framework of the following round tables.
Businesses should spend less time and effort on obtaining permits from the State Service on Food Safety and Consumer Protection – this decision was made by the IWG on deregulation at the last meeting. For this, it is necessary to modernise the lists of products for import, export and re-export, phytosanitary examination and other instruments of state regulation, which are taken care of by the SSFSCP.
The IWG recommended digitising:
The approach to the phytosanitary control of products of plant origin for import is advised to change to a risk-oriented one. That is, those entrepreneurs who did not have violations before will be checked less often.
Separate recommendations of the IWG concern the optimization of state regulation in this field. The list of products of plant origin for import, export and re-export should be reviewed and modernized, taking into account new phytosanitary risks, as well as the requirements of European and international legislation.
The interdepartmental working group on the accelerated review of instruments of state regulation of economic activity was created in January 2023. Over the course of the deregulation reform, it has reviewed more than 1,000 permits, licenses, approvals, etc. BRDO joined the work of the IWG within the EU4busines: SME Policies and Institutions Support (SMEPIS) project, implemented by Ecorys in a consortium with GIZ, BRDO and Civitta.
Artist Maria Timchenko was planning to open an art gallery to show her works in Kyiv when she found herself facing criminal charges for allegedly distributing pornographic content.
After someone shared her erotic paintings on the Telegram messaging app, the 37-year-old artist says she was looking at up to three years in prison and $1,800 for the distribution of pornography. Her plans shattered, she left Ukraine to settle in Germany.
Producing and distributing pornography is currently illegal in Ukraine. Broad interpretations of the law mean that even sharing a nude photograph with a partner can land a person in jail.
In 2023 already, 699 cases have been opened over the distribution, sale, and production of pornography, not including cases of child pornography.
In one case in July, a court in Poltava Oblast fined a woman almost $1,000 for sending two videos to her boyfriend. Meanwhile, in Sumy Oblast, a man was convicted to three years in prison with one year of probation for sending intimate photos and videos via a dating website.
Lawmakers and advocates say this has to change. In their view, the decades-old prohibition of pornography harms ordinary citizens by going after them for consensual sexual content, wasting state resources in the process.
The law is also economically backward given erotic content already generates revenue for the state budget despite being illegal, those who favor changing the law say.
OnlyFans, one of the world’s largest platforms for erotic content, has already generated more than Hr 34 million ($920,000) in tax revenue to Ukraine’s state budget from value-added tax in the first six months of the year, Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak, who has been spearheading the latest effort to legalize porn, told the Kyiv Independent.
“It’s stupid to collect taxes for that and say it’s criminal at the same time,” Zhelezniak said. “If we decriminalize porn, it means less corruption and more taxes for the budget.”
A draft law submitted by Zhelezniak and other lawmakers from various factions in parliament doesn’t apply to child pornography, prostitution, or human trafficking – cases that should be the priority of law enforcement instead of private nude photographs, Zhelezniak says.
Potential millions in tax revenueDmytro Horiunov, an expert from the Kyiv-based think-tank Center for Economic Strategies says the “production of goods and services that don’t hurt anyone shouldn’t be banned nor prosecuted by the law.”
And business is good for the production of pornography.
OnlyFans generated just north of $1 billion in global revenue in the last fiscal year, with 15% coming from Europe.
The platform reported $5.55 billion in total spending by users, with creators taking home nearly $4.5 billion of that, according to a regulatory filing by its parent company Fenix International.
If, as Zhelezniak says, OnlyFans has already generated $920,000 to the state budget in taxes this year, then with a 20% VAT tax, OnlyFans’s content creators in Ukraine have made some $4.6 million.
“We estimate that tens of thousands of people (in Ukraine) actively work in this industry, maybe hundreds of thousands, from full-time on webcams to OnlyFans from time to time,” Ihor Samokhodskyi, head of the IT bureau at Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO), an independent think tank focused on reforms, told the Kyiv Independent.
A quick Google search shows that some agencies offer up to $2,000 a month in a studio and $700 a month at home for webcam models. Studios openly advertise in every big city in Ukraine, despite being illegal.
Based on the estimated number of people working in webcam studios, taxing the legal porn industry could bring billions of hryvnias per year to the state budget, Samokhodskyi estimated.
“The bottom threshold could reach Hr 1 billion ($27 million) in tax revenue the first year if studios come from the dark market to the legal one,” he said, possibly increasing up to $2.7 million per following year.
“It could bring billions of hryvnias in taxes over the span of several years,” he said.
Pornography is also popular in Ukraine. “We criminalize porn, but we are in the top 20 of Pornhub watchers,” Samokhodskyi said.
Abuse and waste of resourcesThe shadow market allows for all kinds of abuse from law enforcement authorities, from petty corruption to sexual abuse.
“We have problems with investigators who use it to control the shadow market and corruption is rising,” according to Zhelezniak.
“There are thousands of cases where policemen not only ask for money but also for sexual services” in cases involving pornography, he said.
Webcam studios have also been coerced into paying law enforcement officers for “protection,” extorting money from studio owners in exchange for the ability to continue working.
An investigation by Ukrainian outlet Zaborona back in 2020 showed that webcam studios are easy prey for blackmail from corrupt police officers.
Samokhodskyi and Zhelezniak believe fighting consensual porn and personal nudes is a waste of resources, and authorities need to get their priorities straight.
Law enforcement spent more than 80,000 hours over the span of the last year on cases of consensual porn and personal pictures shared online, according to Samokhodskyi’s estimates.
Ukrainian judges also tend to refer to the “International Convention on the Prevention of Circulation and Trade in Pornographic Publications,” turning 100 years old this year, to sentence people. Ukraine, however, never signed the convention after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The war shouldn’t stop Ukraine from reforming its approach to consensual porn, Samokhodskyi said. On the contrary, last fall, a petition for the legalization of erotica and pornography garnered the necessary 25,000 signatures for presidential consideration “when the war was even more active,” he said.
Horiunov said law enforcement doesn’t have the means to enforce the current law.
“There’s no chance for law enforcement to track (every case of pornography), and every time, a random person is going to be charged,” he said.
‘My body, my business’Tax revenue aside, Zhelezniak says his main goal with this new draft law is to protect the rights of people for private life.
Oleksandra Mavka, a 26-year-old model taking part in the TerOnlyFans movement, told the Kyiv Independent that she supports the law because it increases liability for things like revenge porn and child pornography while allowing people to freely send intimate pictures to their partners or earn money from their content.
TerOnlyFans, a movement in which volunteers collect money for the military through nudes, has sent more than $866,000 to the army since its creation in March 2022.
The name is a play on words with OnlyFans but unrelated to the platform. Mavka says she got around the law by posting relatively “chaste” photographs.
The current law prohibits one’s free use of his own body that doesn’t harm anyone, she said.
Legalizing the porn industry wouldn’t just bring money. Ukrainian entrepreneurs and artists, such as Timchenko, could return home to pursue their work legally.
“I would like to return home, find a place for a gallery again, and develop erotic art specifically in Ukraine because it is about beauty, will, and desire,” Timchenko said.
“If I want to take pictures and distribute them, that’s my choice,” Mavka said. “My body, my business.”
For the moment, the fate of the porn industry in Ukraine remains in the balance. Polls from ZN.ua and RFE/RL show that the Ukrainian public is relatively divided over the issue.
Zhelezniak, for his part, hopes the new law will pass in the nearest month.
The article was published in The Kyiv Independent
The Cabinet of Ministers approved the list of indicators of the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), adopting the relevant resolution No. 774.
DESI – the Digital Economy and Society Index, which is a standard tool for measuring EU digital productivity. With the help of this index, the progress of EU member states in terms of digital competitiveness is monitored, and they, in turn, get the opportunity to prioritize their needs for reforms and investments.
Implementation of DESI indicators in Ukraine will provide an opportunity to:
The introduction of European approaches to digital transformation will allow expanding the rights and opportunities of every citizen of Ukraine and strengthen Ukrainian enterprises. All this, in the future, will ensure the socio-economic development of Ukraine and its regions.
Specialists of the BRDO analyzed the current policy and regulatory framework for data collection in Ukraine, and also participated in the development of indicators of the Digital Economy and Society Index within the framework of the EU4DigitalUA project, funded by the EU.
The issue of rebuilding the infrastructure of Ukrainian ports and creating new facilities that would be able to meet the existing demand for port services is extremely urgent.
Draft law No. 9664, recently registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, will contribute to solving these issues. The BRDO team participated in the development of the document.
Why is this important?
The full-scale war led to the destruction of the country’s port infrastructure, to changes in cargo flows and to an increase in the load on the ports of the Danube region. The existing infrastructure was mostly built during Soviet times and has been in operation for 30-40 years in a row.
Together, these factors do not create favorable conditions for attracting investments in the creation and development of port infrastructure and strengthening the competitiveness of Ukrainian seaports.
Draft Law No. 9664 eliminates legislative deficiencies in the field of construction in internal sea waters, the territorial sea of Ukraine and sea ports, and also brings all processes into a digitized, transparent plane.
What exactly does draft law No. 9664 offer?
As a result, the draft law will make corruption in this area impossible, as well as provide millions of profits to the state budget of the country through investments. This development of the port industry logically fits into the plan of the country’s European integration recovery.
Two weeks ago, a group of deputies headed by Yaroslav Zhelezniak registered draft law No. 9623, which is designed to decriminalise voluntary adult pornographic materials. The text of the draft law was developed by a working group with the participation of the Parliament Law Enforcement Committee, state bodies and public organisations.
As it became known, People’s Deputy Vladlen Nekliudov is registering an alternative bill. The authors of the new bill claim that it is designed to protect children and decriminalise those pornographic materials that do not involve receiving funds. At the same time, the authors of the alternative draft law write that the distribution of porn “for personal non-selfish motives is not socially dangerous”, but if it involves a reward, then it is a socially dangerous crime.
Experts from BRDO and public organizations, which took the initiative to decriminalise pornography in Ukraine and participated in the development of bill No. 9623, analysed the alternative draft law. Our conclusion: the alternative bill strengthens the minimum and maximum liability for adult porn, without changing the liability for child porn.
What do the norms of the alternative bill provide?
Thus, the authors of the alternative bill actually propose:
BRDO opposes the alternative bill. It will worsen the current situation and deepen the problems, the need to solve which has been supported by more than 20 public organisations (among which are the associations of volunteers and the military).
We call on people’s deputies not to support the alternative draft law registered by People’s Deputy Vladlen Nekliudov, and call on the Parliament Committee on Law Enforcement to recommend adopting the main draft law No. 9623.
On the portal of the Unified State Electronic System in the Field of Construction (EDESSB), the service for publishing data on estimate documentation has been updated.
❓ What will change?
Now, every citizen will be able to view complete information on the expenditure of funds on objects built with state or private funds. Ukrainians will be able to find out how much the developer spent on materials or services, and check how transparently the money is spent. For example, in the documentation you can see how much the builder was paid for 1 hour of work.
Open access to such data will prevent manipulation and reduce corruption risks in the construction sector. And journalists and the public will be able to more easily control the development of cities and counteract abuses.
Previously, only general indicators according to the estimate were available on the portal: the cost of construction works, equipment, furniture, inventory, total cost. The new estimate format will be available for objects that will be included in the EDESSB already after the update of the functionality.
You can view the documentation at the following link: https://e-construction.gov.ua/document/optype=249
Specialists of the BRDO participated in the development of the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Improving the Procedure for Providing Administrative Services in the Field of Construction and Creating a Unified State Electronic System in the Field of Construction”, which introduced the possibility of obtaining services in the field of construction precisely in in electronic form, as well as the Procedure for maintaining the Unified State Electronic System in the field of construction.
The functionality was updated in cooperation with the Ministry of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure and the Ministry of Digital Transformation with the support of the USAID / UK aid project “Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services / TAPAS”.
The National Agency of Ukraine for Asset Search and Management (ARMA) has restored public access to the Unified State Register of assets subject to seizure in criminal proceedings.
This was announced by the Head of ARMA Olena Duma during the briefing.
“The public mode of operation of the Register allows various target audiences to quickly obtain information about what is happening with one or another asset. In particular, who is investigating the criminal case, by whom and when the arrest was made, how ARMA manages the property, how much it was valued at, how much it was sold for at auction, according to which contract it was transferred to the manager and how much money went to the budget from the management. That is, the Register makes it possible to track all actions online from his arrest to the receipt of income by the state,” said Olena Duma.
The register consists of an open part, accessible to every interested person, and a closed part intended for law enforcement officers. The database contains over 129,000 records. About 36,000 of them relate to assets transferred to ARMA management. 829 records relate to measures to assess the value of assets; 1,144 entries – competitive selection of managers; 117 records are about management contracts. 500 entries relate to assets sold at auctions and another 500 entries to cash management activities, taking into account the amounts of funds placed and accrued interest.
The unified state register of assets – at the link: https://reestr.arma.gov.ua/#/
It will be recalled that in July the RISE Ukraine Coalition, which includes BRDO, addressed ARMA with an official statement demanding to open access to the Unified State Register of Assets.
As of the time of publication, the Register is not open for all users. The RISE Ukraine coalition is waiting for a report from the researchers on the results of checking the completeness and quality of the published information.
The full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine led to the fact that numerous industrial and energy facilities in our country were destroyed or damaged to varying degrees.
How to restore the economy of Ukraine in such conditions?
First of all, to attract private domestic and foreign investments. This will be facilitated by the simplification of the procedure for changing the purpose of land plots.
Draft law No. 9627 of August 21, 2023, registered by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, is intended to implement this plan. The BRDO team participated in the development of the document.
What does the bill No. 9627 offer?
1. Make changes to the Land Code of Ukraine.
In particular, simplify the procedure for establishing and changing the purpose of land plots in territories outside settlements (if there is no approved urban planning documentation for such territories at the local level) for the placement of:
Legislative changes will not apply to:
Such simplification will be in effect during the legal regime of martial law and five years from the date of its termination or cancellation in Ukraine or in the relevant separate area.
2. Make changes to the Law of Ukraine “On Regulation of Urban Development Activities”.
The changes will provide that:
The draft law will facilitate the implementation of investment projects necessary for the rapid and effective recovery of the industry of our country in the post-war period. Moreover, this draft law will be useful not only for attracting private investments, but also for the construction of industrial facilities, which will be built at the expense of budget funds (for example, in the field of development of the defense-industrial complex).
We will remind you that BRDO specialists took part in the development of the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Improving the Procedure for Providing Administrative Services in the Construction Sector and Creating a Unified State Electronic System in the Construction Sector”, as well as the Procedure for Conducting the EDESSB.
Draft law No. 9623, designed to decriminalise voluntary adult pornographic materials, was registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine today. 25 People’s Deputies led by Yaroslav Zhelezniak co-initiated it.
BRDO team, together with other public organisations, participated in the development of the draft law and took the initiative of decriminalisation.
What does the bill propose?
Abolish criminal liability for:
At the same time, leave criminal responsibility for:
According to Igor Samokhodskyi, Head of BRDO IT and Telecom sector, “We have really important problems in the field of porn: child porn, human trafficking (coercion, etc.). These are separate crimes that we do not propose to decriminalise in any case. On the contrary, when the police stop chasing after nude photos/videos of adults, they should have more time for really important things, like the fight against child pornography.”
Therefore, we call on people’s deputies to adopt draft law No. 9623 as soon as possible and free up the time resources of Ukrainian law enforcement officers to fight against truly urgent threats.
Read more about what is wrong with Ukrainian legislation in the field of pornography and how this issue is regulated in EU countries in our previous publication.
Key sets of open data, the availability of which depends on the transparency and accountability of reconstruction, are still not available. The RISE Ukraine coalition (hereinafter – the Coalition) and the Public Council under the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine (hereinafter – the Public Council) call on administrators to make public open data. For this purpose, we invite the security agencies to public communication with administrators and civil society, and the Ministry of Digital Transformation to discuss the developed changes to Resolution No. 835 of October 21, 2015.
In January 2023, the RISE Ukraine Coalition published a statement on ensuring the availability of open data. The problems mentioned in this statement persist to this day. Key datasets on which reconstruction transparency and accountability depend are not being made public, or are being made public with unjustified restrictions. These sets include, among others:
When restricting access to important public information, in no case was the so-called “three-fold test” carried out. That is, the restriction of access to data from the very beginning was carried out contrary to the requirements of the law. In addition, in many cases of restricting access by administrators, no official decision was issued that would serve as a legal basis for the respective restrictions. Thus, these restrictions were not only illegal, but also extremely opaque.
There are no legal reasons for restricting access to information in the form of open data, as all related legislation continues to be in force. At the same time, administrators unofficially note that they received letters of recommendation from the SBU regarding the closure of the data and now fear persecution in case of re-disclosure of the data. The lack of public communication on the part of the SBU and other security agencies regarding the risks created by the publication of this or that information creates a situation in which many data that do not threaten the security of the country are not made public. The practice of such informal restrictions is illegal and harmful. It threatens confidence in the reconstruction process, both in Ukrainian society and among international partners. It is transparency that is a necessary prerequisite for trust. A lack of trust will undermine political stability during wartime and reduce international aid.
Coalition organizations and the Public Council offer assistance in analyzing the risks associated with data disclosure, developing informed decisions about data disclosure, and communicating with regulators.
According to our information, after the public discussion of the draft amendments to Resolution No. 835 of the CMU dated 21.10.2015, the norms regarding the restriction of access to certain data sets during the legal regime of martial law were excluded from it. This is a positive development and we welcome it. At the same time, we call on the Ministry of Digital Transformation to openly discuss with stakeholders other norms introduced by the draft Resolution. As the body responsible for public policy in the field of open data, the Ministry should initiate such a discussion.
The RISE Ukraine coalition and the Public Council under the Ministry of Digital Transformation call for:
1. provide clear explanations regarding the need to close information;
2. start cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, data managers and civil society to discuss risks and effectively conduct the “three-fold test” by managers.
1 The procedure for setting conditions for restricting access is defined by Article 6 of the Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public Information”
People’s deputy Yaroslav Zhelezniak sent a draft law designed to decriminalise the use of pornographic materials that do not constitute a public danger for the deputies to sign. As the author notes, all willing people’s deputies will be able to sign the bill within three days, after which it will be registered in the Parliament.
Why is this important?
Despite the absence of public danger, law enforcement agencies and courts of Ukraine continue to prosecute persons for pornography. More than 1,000 cases are opened every year, in particular, for content on onlyfans, from which taxes are paid in Ukraine. People can be held accountable for the content of their mobile phones and private messages.
Recently, the society was shaken by the story of a woman from Novi Sanzhary, who received a criminal sentence for sending her own masturbation videos in private correspondence. The court recognised the video as a pornographic product and imposed a fine of UAH 34,000, as well as confiscating the phone as an instrument of crime.
According to Zhelezniak, the draft law will protect citizens from abuses by law enforcement agencies and prosecution for actions widespread in private life.
What does the bill propose?
Abolish criminal liability for:
At the same time, leave criminal responsibility for:
What is wrong with the current Ukrainian legislation in the field of pornography
Ukrainian society, at least according to statistics, does not consider watching pornography wrong or dangerous. This is evidenced by the following facts:
However, the production and circulation of porn in Ukraine is currently completely prohibited. Accordingly, those citizens of Ukraine who create/send/store pornographic content are subject to criminal prosecution.
The current legislation of Ukraine regarding acts with pornography criminalises acts that do not involve public danger (such as the distribution of any pornographic items among adults). At the same time, there are no special prohibitions (regarding the distribution of pornographic items depicting violent acts, acts that threaten human life, or sexual acts committed by people with animals). The maximum penalty for violating the ban is imprisonment for seven years. The ban allows law enforcement officials to threaten criminal prosecution and demand bribes even from people who create material that is far from pornographic.
We believe that spending money and time resources of the law enforcement system during the war to find and punish people who do not pose any public danger is a waste.
How is pornography regulated in European countries?
In European countries, certain acts related to pornography, which contain public danger (involvement of children or animals, coercion, violence, etc.) are mostly criminalised. In general, at the EU level, the distribution of pornography has been decriminalised. In this matter, Ukraine follows the laws of the USSR and criminalises the distribution of pornographic materials, referring to the 100-year-old document – the International Convention on the Prevention of Circulation and Trade in Pornographic Publications, to which it is not a party. Apart from our country, this practice is used only by the countries of the former Soviet bloc: the Russian Federation, Belarus, Bulgaria and Lithuania, as well as the Vatican.
Public initiative for the decriminalisation of pornography
In October last year, BRDO together with a number of Ukrainian NGOs jointly advocated for the decriminalisation of the creation, import and distribution of pornographic products (except for images of violent acts, acts that threaten human life, and sexual acts with the participation of animals).
BRDO team participated in the development of the draft law. The initiative was supported by more than twenty public organisations, including the military, and more than 70 people who signed the corresponding appeal.
Finally, the decriminalisation of pornography will not affect the number or frequency of viewing pornographic materials, because porn is already viewed en masse and webcams are also en masse. Instead, a person who sends nudity or other pornographic materials, in particular in private correspondence, will be protected from prosecution by the police and from the threat of criminal liability.
Therefore, we call on people’s deputies to support the initiative and sign the draft law.
Simplification of the regulatory field in the field of construction and housing and communal services is important, in particular, in the context of the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. To cancel or optimise almost 75% of state regulation tools in the field of construction, which are taken care of by the Ministry of Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine – such recommendations were adopted by the IWG on deregulation today.
Are recommended to cancel:
To optimise or modernise:
Today, the above-mentioned permits and approvals must be obtained by both legal entities and individuals, so the implementation of the decision of the IWG on deregulation will make life easier not only for entrepreneurs, but also for ordinary citizens.
BRDO joined the work of the IWG within the EU4business: SME Policies and Institutions Support (SMEPIS) project, implemented by Ecorys in a consortium with GIZ, BRDO and Civitta.