October 13, a press conference “Kyiv Drivers against Lawlessness in the Capital’s Parking Lots” took place at the UNIAN Information Agency. During the event, activists of the Public Organization “Direct Action Committee” (D.A.C.) expressed the public position regarding counteraction to unlawful blocking of wheels of vehicles by employees of the communal enterprise “Kyivtransparkservis” and presented the results of a public campaign for observance of the law in the parking lots in Kyiv. The campaign is running under the support of the Civil Society Impact Enchancement Program of the International Renaissance Foundation.
Money sanctions for removal of wheel clamps, which have been applied by Kyiv authorities since 2006, are unlawful. Only law-enforcement bodies can limit citizens’ use of their property (in particular, cars) and only per a court ruling. Therefore, blocking of wheels by employees of the communal enterprise with further demanding of money can be characterized as extortion. Not do only motorists consider this as such, but also does the General Prosecutor’s office, which in May of 2008 submitted its protest regarding a corresponding Decision of the Kyiv City Council, and the Minister of Justice Mykola Onyshchuk indicated the following in the Official Explanation, dated as of April 6, 2009: “…practice of blocking of wheels does not correspond to norms of the Constitution of Ukraine, the Civil Code, the Code on Administrative Violations of the Law and the Law of Ukraine “On Traffic”.
According to Dmytro Hnap, Head of Direct Action Committee, “everyone — employees of law-enforcement bodies, politicians, journalists, and lawyers – know that the law does not allow blocking of wheels. However, no one can influence the Kyiv authorities so that they stop violating the law. Due to that, citizens themselves started to protect their rights from arbitrariness of city officials.”
The public campaign of the Direct Action Committee is directed on provision of practical assistance to ‘blocked’ drivers and on involvement of car owners into protection of their legal rights.
“In this case, we have a prime example of a public initiative on advocacy: citizens-owners of cars united together to assert upon and protect their rights. According to an evaluation of independent experts, this project became one of the 27 winners that received joint support of the International Renaissance Foundation, East Europe Foundation and UNITER Program”, noted Oleksandra Goryacheva, Civil Society Impact Enchancement Program Manager of the International Renaissance Foundation.
Association of car owners for protection of their rights became necessary also because that not only do blockers of wheels use unlawful methods, but they also often use force and threats towards drivers.
As reported Yuri Yakovchuk, activist of the Direct Action Committee who physically suffered from blockers’ actions: “I heard that blocking is unlawful. When I was ‘blocked’, I told them: “Guys, you don’t have the right to do this”. There were three guys and one of them, as a response, broke a side mirror of my car and started to push me. Now we are waiting for a regular court sitting regarding this case.”
Within the scope of the public campaign, D.A.C activists carried out more than 300 visits to spots of events to provide assistance to car owners; they took 1,077 calls to a hotline (tel. 098-55-2-77-00) from car owners and in all cases they achieved lawful and free removal of wheel clamps and also distributed more than twenty thousand copies of a leaflet called “Blocking of wheels – typical thuggery!”. According to the results of the public campaign, car owners saved more than 400,000 hryvnia from unlawful extortion. Also, civil consciousness and solidarity of drivers increased to a large extent.
Under the assistance of established international donors, D.A.C. hopes to achieve abolishment of unlawful practice of blocking of wheels and attain a transition to the European system of collection of penalties for unpaid parking fees, namely, by issuing penalty receipts that are put under windshield wipers. This will allow to stop violations of law and eliminate conflicts in relations between drivers and employees of the communal enterprise.
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More detailed information regarding the problem can be obtained at:
www.kpd.in.ua , by e-mail: kpdua@ukr.net or at tel.: 098-55-2-77-00
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Diana Zubko, tel: +380 (44) 461 95 00 | fax: +380 (44) 486 01 66 email: zubko@irf.kiev.ua office: Kyiv, Bekhterevsky Lane, 13-a, room 2 |
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