Featured Commitment – Ukraine

Country: Ukraine
CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action...: Regulating Access to Communist-era Archives
National Action PlanAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen...: 2014-15

Access to the files of the Soviet period secret services and law enforcement agencies remains a sensitive issue. Many of the archives remain closed for researchers or difficult to access. General Law of Ukraine on Archives does not provide effective mechanisms for accessing these files. The archives are spread out among different institutions and are not properly administered. New management of the relevant state agencies appointed in 2014 has promoted open access policy, but there were legal obstacles that hindered effective access and management of these documents of significant public interest. Prior to adoption of the OGP action plan several NGOs started working on the relevant draft law, but OGP action plan became the first official commitment to proceed in this direction.

The Government exceeded the planned implementation of the commitment. The Government submitted the draft law developed by NGOs and the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance to the parliament in the beginning of April 2015 and in few days (on 9 April 2015) the parliament adopted the law in the first and final reading.

The Law on Access to Archives of Repressive Bodies of the Communist Totalitarian Regime of 1917-1991 determines special procedure for accessing relevant archives and lists grounds for restricting such access. The Law mandates the law enforcement, security and other agencies to transfer relevant archives they possess to a special state archive to be set up and managed by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance.