Ukraine marks 11th anniversary of Constitution

On the historic night of 28 June 1996 the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) adopted the first Constitution of the independent Ukraine.

The world praised not only the content of the fundamental law, which fully conforms to the standards of contemporary European democracy, but also the nature of the constitutional process itself. The Constitution was adopted after comprehensive and extensive proceedings. As a result, the document came to embody the interests of all segments of Ukrainian society and has become a reliable guarantor of the rule of law and a solid foundation upon which nowadays Ukraine is building its democratic principles of statehood. It created the conditions essential for developing in Ukrainian society values that are based on unwavering support for human rights and liberties, democracy and commitment to the national interest.

At the same time, the Constitution established fundamental principles that guide the foreign policy of our nation – it affirmed the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine’s borders and significantly broadened the possibilities for finding the most effective mechanisms to ensure the national security of the state. Adoption of the Constitution allowed Ukraine to resolve a number of most essential foreign policy issues that our country had faced from the very moment of its rebirth as an independent state.

Over the 10 years since the adoption of the Constitution, Ukraine has been introducing universal democratic standards into its political and economic culture in order to guarantee further successful implementation of democratic reforms in our state at all levels of political and social life.