Rethinking Lustrations

Abstract

Shortly after the Euromaidan protests in 2014, the new Ukrainian government passed two acts to consolidate democracy by means of lustration and vetting. Whilst the first Act On the restoration of trust in the judiciary concerns the judicial system only, the second ActOn Government Cleansingimpacts most of the public sector, as well as the military. The legislation was supported by the Civic Lustration Committee, whose main goal was to make sure that the President adopted their proposals for lustration. As this did not turn out to be the case, they gathered expertise from Central and Eastern Europe to draft the Law on Government Cleansing. The expertise consisted of various lawmakers and academics from Czech Republic, Poland, and Georgia (CIVIC LUSTRATION COMMITTEE, 2015). From these, the study has looked at how the Czechoslovak lustration resemble with the Ukrainian ones, as there is direct evidence of cooperation and both countries adopted exclusive lustrations. Specifically, it looks at their creation, reception, and effectivity. It argues that the Ukrainian lustrations do not fall within the framework of scholarship on transitional justice due to violence, lack of compatibility with the human rights, as well as the lack of effectivity in executing lustrations.