Minister addresses prestigious Empire Club (10/13/96)

Minister addresses prestigious Empire Club

by Andrij Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau

TORONTO - Ukraine's minister of justice, Serhiy Holovaty, has joined a rarefied crowd. On September 27, he delivered the keynote address at a luncheon hosted by Canada's prestigious Empire Club at the Royal York Hotel's Ontario Room.

In his prepared speech, titled "At the Threshold: The Implications of Ukraine's New Constitution for Social, Political and Economic Transformations in Ukraine," Mr. Holovaty outlined the difficulties and challenges his country faces, the significance of the Constitution as "a crowning achievement in [its] process of transition and transformation" and sounded a confident and optimistic note in asserting that "democracy is alive and well in Ukraine" as it faces the 21st century.

Individuals who have addressed this speaker's forum since its inception in 1903 include 11 Canadian prime ministers, the U.K.'s Winston Churchill, India's Indira Ghandi, United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, anthropologist Margaret Mead, and U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, among 2,500 other prominent Canadians and international figures.

The head table for the occasion included senior Empire Club officials Willis Blair and William Whittaker; Ukraine's Consul General in Toronto Serhiy Borovyk; Ukrainian Canadian legal heavyweights (both from the Ontario bench) Justices Eugene Fedak and Eugene Ewaschuk; and Petro Mykuliak, president of the World Council of Ukrainian Credit Unions, which co-sponsored the luncheon.

Mr. Holovaty was introduced by the Empire Club's president, Julie Hannaford. Ms. Hannaford, a practicing litigation lawyer at the high-power firm of Borden & Elliot and a faculty member at Toronto's Osgoode Hall Law School, had clearly been both impressed and charmed upon having met Ukraine's highest-ranking jurist. "He is articulate, witty, thoughtful, humane and entirely human, although I don't know when he gets a chance to sleep," she said.

By way of introduction, Ms. Hannaford asked the audience of about 450 to imagine "that you've changed jobs" and are headhunting for someone to fill the position of Ukraine's minister of justice. The Empire Club president thus outlined Ukraine's geopolitical importance, the realities of its justice system and Mr. Holovaty's impressive qualifications "to develop and manage its governance."

She noted Mr. Holovaty's educational background (Ph.D. in international law, Kyiv State University, 1986), his teaching experience at the Academy of Legal Science of Ukraine in Kyiv, his position as president of the Ukrainian Legal Foundation and of the World Congress of Ukrainian Lawyers, his membership on the Council of Europe's Commission on Democracy through Law, and his participation, since 1990, in over 25 symposia and conferences on law, economics, politics and history in Canada, the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Ukraine's justice minister began by noting that September 27 marked the date he had been appointed to his post exactly one year ago, and that he was "very pleased to share this event with my friends in Canada."

Mr. Holovaty said "Ukraine is a nation looking to the future with a new hope, emerging confidence and a new sense of purpose" now that a new era in the development of its young democracy has been opened through the adoption of its new Constitution.

He said Ukraine "requires the continued support of its friends" because "some quarters" are still desperate to undermine the country's credibility as a viable independent and democratic state, and slammed "the chauvinistic and distorted article ... in a recent issue of Forbes magazine" as an illustration of such efforts.

Mr. Holovaty spoke confidently of Ukraine's internal political stability and ethnic harmony, and its presence "in the family of European nations as a full member of the Council of Europe." He added that "experts" point to signs of an economic turnaround, and that his country's gross national product "will achieve 1 percent growth next year for the first time since independence" and that 7 to 8 percent growth are conceivable within a few years.

Turning to the title topic, Ukraine's justice minister said the adoption of a Constitution was "a defining moment in Ukraine's struggle for statehood," and that the rule of law has been entrenched as the foundation of the Ukrainian state "for the first time in history."

He said the Constitution consolidates historical aspirations manifested as far back as 1710, when Kozak Hetman Pylyp Orlyk drew up a constitution to express the Ukrainian nation's desire "to cast off the yoke of tyranny," in a document that predates the American Declaration of Independence.

Mr. Holovaty quoted Harvard scholar Jeffrey Sachs's description of the Soviet system - "not a legal order, but a kind of organized mafia of ruthless extent" - and said the new Constitution (which replaced a document adopted when Ukraine was still a constituent element of the USSR) represents a "clean break" with this past. "It is a contract where both the individual and the state undertake to one another to abide by the laws of the land," Mr. Holovaty said.

He said this has implications for "contractual relationships" in the economic sense, in that it will enable a market economy to function effectively and efficiently, and in the socio-political sense. "It is a contract which will underpin the success of all of the transformations under way."

Mr. Holovaty stressed that the Constitution's explicit guarantee of an independent judiciary will "facilitate the confidence in the sanctity of the validity and enforceability of contractual relationships." He also emphasized the guarantees for the use and promotion of minority languages in Ukraine, including Russian.

Legal reform outlined

Mr. Holovaty outlined some of the extensive legal reform undertaken in his country, including a restructuring of his own ministry, the redrafting of laws to bring them into conformity with the European Convention of Human Rights, the submission of a new Civil Code for Ukraine, the improvement of the quality of the legal education system and of the drafting of laws, and his efforts in support of the creation of an independent bar.

In this regard, the Ukrainian justice minister offered praise and thanks to various Canadian agencies that have given their support, including the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Affairs, the federal Department of Justice, the Order of Notaries of Québec and the Chief Legislative Council of Saskatchewan.

In closing, Mr. Holovaty said that the Constitution "establishes a framework for peaceful national integration, responsible government, and harmonious social and ethnic relations," and that "never again will Ukrainians tolerate the imposition of a system which destroys social, human and economic values."

"Instead, Ukraine shall build its state and secure its future on the basis of freedom ... to pursue one's livelihood; freedom to express one's point of view," Mr. Holovaty said.

After the address, Ms. Hannaford presented Mr. Holovaty with a bound edition of addresses delivered at the Empire Club in 1993, while the Ukrainian jurist offered the official English translation of Ukraine's new Constitution issued by Ukraine's Ministry of Justice.