On the blind side of war-stricken country: the fight of Ukrainian students

As a common rule, with the imminent existential threat at one’s doorstep, the value of the things beyond those needed to destroy it as fast as possible is being paralyzed precipitously. Are Ukrainian students being therefore blatantly neglected? 

Let me hint you a possible answer with a common-sense-based analysis and a small portion of personal experience.

Human nature

The rule is a completely natural and reasonable response mechanism embedded into the neurological structures of basically every living creature, doubtlessly comprising human beings. In fact, the decision-makers of the current Ukrainian government - whom most of the world’s closely resembling democratic states’ population, myself included, greatly admires for its response to the imminent threat - have arguably yet to attend to a significant chunk of its future; namely, to its full-time male university students aged from 18 to 60.  

I am referring to the obsolete and exceedingly imperfect Ukrainian legislation that among other things, in brief, prohibits the aforementioned category of people to leave the country in order to study abroad, hence violating their right to international academic mobility. Under the current circumstances, i.e. the full-scale war, the latter also entails an impediment to the exercise of the constitutional right of accessing quality education.

Broader policy implications

It is worth pointing out, however, that the clash between students and the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine is merely another demonstration of the nation's struggle to bring the Rule of Law principle into reality. As the Venice Commission accurately pinpointed in the Rule of Law Checklist while describing its legal certainty aspect,

Foreseeability means not only that the law must, where possible, be proclaimed in advance of implementation and be foreseeable as to its effects: it must also be formulated with sufficient precision and clarity to enable legal subjects to regulate their conduct in conformity with it.

A proper implementation of the principle is also part and parcel of the European integration process which formally started on June 23, 2022, when the European Council granted Ukraine the status of a candidate for accession to the European Union.

The current Rules for crossing the state border by citizens of Ukraine, nonetheless, has not a single reference to a "student of higher education" category as defined in another law exempting such students from a mandatory conscription. Instead, it uses a subtle reference norm to this law in order to bar the male students-Ukrainian citizens from crossing the border, thereby leaving overwhelming discretion to individual border-crossing checkpoints: both in deciding whom to let across the border as well as defining what documents and conditions are to be adhered to grant a green light.

So far, according to several active State Border Guard Service of Ukraine officers, who would like to remain anonymous, such discretion has been carried out by dint of "internal directives" issued by "higher offices" and accessible to nobody but the officers on particular checkpoints.

Common sense

While being completely aware of those who cannot wait to abuse every existing opportunity to evade the ongoing conscription, I would personally never punish 100 innocent for 1 guilty, especially when approximate damage potentially done by the latter by no means exceeds the benefits brought by the former. 

Though one may object against a great deal of partiality on my side: even after more than two months of bureaucratic madness and clashes with the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, two dozens of visits to pertinent governmental institutions, and, finally, ten unsuccessful attempts to cross the border - I still have not been able to exercise my above-mentioned right. Yet, if my thoughts have a legal and logical standing, is it really partiality or… perseverance? 

What is next? - Government Relations

As commencement of the next studying semester appears on the horizon, the answer is being gradually crystallized through lobbying efforts by Ukrainian politics, student unions and students themselves - who genuinely care about potentially never unveiled professional capacity of those being educationally restricted.

Undoubtedly we all have the same strategic outlook: unequivocal victory and prosperous Ukraine; yet the scope should sometimes be readjusted for the tactics not to operate at cross-purposes. That is, in a nutshell, what needs to be done here.

🇺🇦Glory to Ukraine🇺🇦

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#ukraine #humanrights #governmentrelations #publicaffairs #lawstudents