Razumkov Centre research fellow on legal issues, retired judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine P. Stetsiuk on November 21, 2024 took part in the work of the Scientific Forum "Revolution of Dignity: going down in history".
The event was dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Orange Revolution and the 11th anniversary of the beginning of Euromaidan /Revolution of Dignity and was organized by the Museum of the Revolution of Dignity in close cooperation with the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, the Institute of Ukrainian History of the NAS of Ukraine, UCU, Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University and the National University "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy".
Delivering a report “The Constitutional and Legal Dimension of the Revolution of Dignity”, P. Stetsiuk drew the attention of the Forum participants to the role of the Revolution on Granite, the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity in the transformation of the post-Soviet political system in Ukraine. According to the expert, from the constitutional and legal point of view, the Kyiv protest actions of the winter of 2013–2014 (Revolution of Dignity) went through several consecutive periods, namely:
- the citizens of Ukraine exercising their constitutional right to peaceful assembly (from the beginning of the protests to the first peaceful protesters killed on 01/20/22);
- active defence by Ukrainian citizens of the constitutional order of their state, democratic and republican principles, and legitimate resistance to the usurpation of power by leading representatives of the ruling political regime (from the murders at protest rallies of S. Nigoyan and M. Zhiznevsky to the mass shooting at peaceful protesters on February 19 and 20, 2022);
- restoration of the constitutional law and order in Ukraine (from the flight of Ukraine’s President V. Yanukovych from Ukraine to the end of February / beginning of March 2022).
The expert paid special attention to the analysis of the status (legal posture) of the parties to the Kyiv protest rallies of 2013–14 — peaceful protesters (citizens of Ukraine), as opposed to the employees of the law enforcement agencies (men and officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine, other state bodies), as well as the leading representatives of the ruling political regime.
According to P. Stetsiuk, Ukrainian protest actions (maidans) in general and Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity in particular objectively played a role in the process of modern constitutional development of Ukraine.
For more details about the event go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwdACv5JoSE.
