Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Political Parties in Ukraine,” banning “pro-Russian parties,” were passed by the Verkhovna Rada legislature and signed into law in May 2022. The cases brought by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine against 16 opposition parties, however, have consistently applied that law retroactively to statements and actions dating from long before May 2022, despite the fact that Article 15 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Ukraine is a party, states: “No one shall be held guilty of any criminal offense on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a criminal offense, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed.”
The appeal of the party Opposition Platform—For Life (OPFL) was heard before the Supreme Court on 15 September. This party had received 13% of the vote in the Parliamentary elections of 2019 and held 44 seats in the Verkhovna Rada (parliament), the second largest bloc. The Supreme Court let the lower court’s ruling stand, meaning that the OPFL is now permanently banned in Ukraine.
