Eng
Last modification: 11.06.21 12:27:56
DECLARATION
OF STATE SOVEREIGNTY OF UKRAINE
(The Official Bulletin of the Verkhovna Rada of USSR (BVR), 1990, No. 31, Art. 429)
The Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR,
expressing the will of the people of Ukraine,
aspiring to create a democratic society,
having regard to the needs to comprehensively ensure the rights and freedoms of a person,
respecting the national rights of all peoples,
having concern for the integral political, economic, social and spiritual development of the people of Ukraine,
acknowledging the need to build the rule-of-law state,
intending to assert sovereignty and self-governance of the people of Ukraine,
the state sovereignty of Ukraine as the supremacy, self-dependence, absoluteness and indivisibility of the authority of the Republic within the limits of its territory and independence and equality of rights in foreign relations.
I. SELF-DETERMINATION OF THE UKRAINIAN NATION
As the sovereign national state, the Ukrainian SSR shall develop within the existing borders based on the exercise by the Ukrainian nation of its inalienable right to self-determination.
The Ukrainian SSR shall protect and defend the national statehood of the Ukrainian people.
Any kind of violent actions against the national statehood of Ukraine on the part of political parties, public organisations, other groups or individuals shall be prosecuted under the law.
The citizens of the Republic of all nationalities shall constitute the people of Ukraine.
The people of Ukraine shall be the single source of the state authority in the Republic.
The absolute sovereignty of the people of Ukraine shall be exercised on the basis of the Constitution of the Republic both directly and through Members of Parliament elected to the Verkhovna and local councils of the Ukrainian SSR.
Only the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR may act on behalf of the entire people. No political party, public organisation, other group or individual may act on behalf of the entire people of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian SSR shall be self-dependent in addressing any issues of its politics.
The Ukrainian SSR shall ensure the supremacy of the Constitution and the laws of the Republic within its territory.
The state power in the Republic shall be exercised based on the principle of its division into legislative, executive and judicial authorities.
The supreme supervision over the precise and uniform execution of laws shall be conducted by the Prosecutor General of the Ukrainian SSR who shall be appointed by the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR and shall be answerable and accountable thereto.
IV. CITIZENSHIP OF THE UKRAINIAN SSR
The Ukrainian SSR shall have its own citizenship and shall guarantee every citizen the right to retain the citizenship of the USSR.
The Law of the Ukrainian SSR on citizenship shall specify the grounds for the acquisition and loss of the citizenship of the Ukrainian SSR.
The rights and freedoms provided for by the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR and norms of the international law, recognised by the Ukrainian SSR, shall be guaranteed to all citizens of the Ukrainian SSR.
The Ukrainian SSR shall ensure equality in the eyes of the law for all citizens of the Republic regardless of their origin, social and property status, race and nationality, sex, education, language, political opinion, religion, line and nature of the occupation, place of residence and other circumstances.
The Ukrainian SSR shall regulate immigration processes.
The Ukrainian SSR shall manifest concern and implement measures for the protection and advocacy of the interests of the Ukrainian SSR citizens staying outside the Republic.
The Ukrainian SSR shall exercise supremacy throughout its entire territory.
The territory of the Ukrainian SSR within the existing borders shall be integral and shall not be changed and used without its consent.
The Ukrainian SSR shall independently determine the administrative and territorial structure of the Republic and the procedure for setting up national and administrative units.
The Ukrainian SSR shall independently determine its economic status and enshrine it in the laws.
The people of Ukraine shall have the exclusive right to possess, use and manage the national wealth of Ukraine.
The land, its subsoils, airspace, water and other natural resources, occurring within the limits of the territory of the Ukrainian SSR, the natural resources of its continental shelf and exclusive (maritime) economic zone, the entire economic, scientific and technical potential, generated within the territory of Ukraine, shall be the property of its people, material basis of the sovereignty of the Republic and shall be used for the purpose of ensuring the material and spiritual requirements of its people.
The Ukrainian SSR shall have the right to its share in the all-union wealth, in particular, in the all-union diamond and monetary funds and gold reserve, which were accumulated due to the efforts of the people of the Republic.
Addressing issues of the all-union property (common property of all republics) shall be conducted on a contractual basis between the republics – entities of its property.
Enterprises, institutions, organisations and objects of other states and their citizens, of international organisations, may be placed on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR and may use the natural resources of Ukraine in conformity with the laws of the Ukrainian SSR.
The Ukrainian SSR shall independently establish the bank (including the foreign economic bank), price, financial, customs, tax systems, form the state budget, and by perforce shall adopt its currency unit.
The High Lending Institution of the Ukrainian SSR shall be the National Bank of Ukraine, accountable to the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR.
Enterprises, institutions, organisations and production units, located on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR, shall pay the charge for the use of land, other natural and labour resources, deduction from the foreign exchange earnings and pay taxes to the local budgets.
The Ukrainian SSR shall ensure advocacy of all forms of ownership.
The Ukrainian SSR shall independently establish the procedure for the environmental protection organising on the territory of the Republic and the procedure for the use of the natural resources.
The Ukrainian SSR shall have its National Commission on Radiation Protection of the Population.
The Ukrainian SSR shall have the right to prohibit building and terminate the functioning of any enterprises, institutions, organisations and other objects, posing risks to environmental safety.
The Ukrainian SSR shall concern for the environmental safety of citizens, for the gene pool of the people, its young generation.
The Ukrainian SSR shall have the right to compensation of damages, caused to the ecology of Ukraine by the actions of the union bodies.
The Ukrainian SSR shall be independent in addressing the issues of science, education, cultural and spiritual development of the Ukrainian nation, guarantee all nationalities, residing on the territory of the Republic, the right to their free national and cultural development.
The Ukrainian SSR shall ensure the national and cultural revival of the Ukrainian people, its historical awareness and traditions, national and ethnographic particularities, functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of social life.
The Ukrainian SSR shall manifest the concern over meeting the national and cultural, spiritual and linguistic requirements of the Ukrainians, residing beyond the limits of the Republic.
The national, cultural and historical values within the territory of the Ukrainian SSR shall exclusively be the property of the people of the Republic.
The Ukrainian SSR shall have the right to return the national, cultural and historic values located outside the Ukrainian SSR into the ownership of the people of Ukraine.
IX. FOREIGN AND HOMELAND SECURITY
The Ukrainian SSR shall have the right to its own Armed Forces.
The Ukrainian SSR shall have its own internal troops and state security bodies, subordinated to the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR.
The Ukrainian SSR shall determine the procedure for performing military service by citizens of the Republic.
Citizens of the Ukrainian SSR shall serve active military obligation, generally, within the territory of the Republic and shall not be employed for military purposes beyond its limits without consent of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR.
The Ukrainian SSR ceremoniously proclaims its intention to become a permanently neutral state in the future, which will be out of military blocks and will be committed to three non-nuclear principles: not to accept, not to produce and not to acquire the nuclear weapon.
The Ukrainian SSR, as an international law entity, shall maintain direct interactions with other states, conclude contracts with them, exchange diplomatic, consular, trade missions, participate in the activities of the international organisations to the extent required to effectively ensure the national interests of the Republic in the political, economic, ecological, informational, scientific, technical, cultural and sports spheres.
The Ukrainian SSR shall act as an equitable participant of the international communication, actively contribute to the consolidation of the common peace and international security, directly participate in the pan-European process and European structures.
The Ukrainian SSR shall acknowledge the superiority of universal human values over class values, the priority of generally recognised norms of international law over the norms of domestic law.
Relations between the Ukrainian SSR and other Soviet republics shall be built on the basis of contracts concluded on the principles of equality, mutual respect and non-interference in internal affairs.
The Declaration shall be the basis for the new Constitution, laws of Ukraine, and shall determine the positions of the Republic during the conclusion of international treaties. The principles of the Declaration of Sovereignty of Ukraine shall be used to conclude the union treaty.