Ombudswoman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova has met with head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine Matilda Bogner, the press service of the Ombudswoman's Office reported.

"The parties discussed the humanization of national legislation in relation to persons serving life sentences, because today Ukraine is the leader among European countries in terms of the number of life sentences – 1,536 people," the message posted on the Telegram channel says.

In particular, Denisova cited the example of citizen S., who is awaiting a review of the verdict of the Crimean Court of Appeal of November 26, 2004 due to newly discovered circumstances.

"His criminal case is in the temporarily occupied Crimea, and due to the absence of a norm in international agreements on the transfer of cases, the Russian Federation refuses to provide it to Ukraine," Denisova said.

She clarified that today the legislation of Ukraine does not provide for an effective mechanism for the possible release of life sentences from further serving the sentence and deprives the so-called right to hope - the revision of the court's decision after a certain period of time.

The Ombudswoman is confident that this issue can be resolved by the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of draft laws No. 4048 "On amendments to certain legislative acts on the implementation of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights" and No. 4049 "On amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses of Ukraine, the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine regarding the implementation of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights" at the second reading and as a whole.

"Then the Ukrainian legislation will comply with the ECHR practice on the early release of persons sentenced to life imprisonment. I hope that the bills will be included in the agenda of the next session of the Ukrainian parliament," Denisova emphasized.

The parties also discussed the importance of the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of the law "On the indigenous peoples of Ukraine" and noted that the document requires clarification, in particular with regard to the inclusion in the list of the indigenous peoples of the Gagauz people living in Ukraine and Moldova, and not having their own state. Denisova thanked Bogner for joint work in the field of protecting human and civil rights and freedoms.