Chornolutsky V. The system for ensuring of political rights and freedoms by the executive bodies of regional level under decentralization

The thesis deals with research on theoretical and practical bases of the system for ensuring of political rights and freedoms by the executive bodies of regional level and identifying ways of its improvement under decentralization. The term "the system for ensuring of political rights and freedoms by the executive bodies of regional level" is defined as part of a national mechanism for ensuring human rights and freedoms. It has a two-tier hierarchical structure and consists of a set of executive bodies of general and special competence of regional levels and, also, of relations occurring between them over the needs of citizens for exercising their constitutional rights and freedoms in the political sphere. The functions of the system were determined on the basis of analysis of internal and external environment of the system. The first classification is based on the criteria of the content of political rights and public bodies for the implementation of that right. The second classification is based on the criteria of scope of political rights and freedoms, which is ensured by executive body (functions carried out in every executive authority and functions carried out by separate executive bodies). The third classification is based on the criteria of the content of actions and the subject of relations with the system or with some of its elements (organizational, executive, control, information functions and professional socialization). The classification of publications on the subject of the thesis was elaborated: the development of theoretical and methodological aspects of the ensuring for human rights and freedoms; the analysis of the activities of public authorities for ensuring of political rights and ways to improve it; the ensuring for political rights by separate executive bodies; specifics of the implementation of the political rights of specific groups of citizens in Ukraine; the particularity of the implementation of collective political rights and freedoms. The ways to ensure political rights and freedoms by the executive authorities of regional level and the basic problems of their implementation are systematized in the dissertation. Each executive body of regional level ensures right to information, right to participate in public affairs, right to have access to public service, right to petition. According to legal regulations some executive bodies of regional level ensure additional political rights and freedoms. Local state administrations do so with the right to petition the local self-government, right to participate in elections and referendums. The regional offices of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine do so with the right to participate in peaceful assemblies. The regional offices of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine ensure right to freedom of association. The regional offices of the National Agency of Ukraine of civil service ensure the right to equal access to public service in other executive bodies and service in local government. The paper identified key issues related to how political rights and freedoms are being ensured by the executive authorities of regional level: the existence of violations of the legislation in the organization and functioning of executive bodies; imperfection of existing regulation of the functioning of the executive authorities; lack of the methodology to estimate the resources of authority to meet the needs of citizens in the realization of their political rights and freedoms; lack of an effective and transparent mechanism of monitoring and control of the ensuring of political rights and freedoms by executive bodies and local authorities. The threats and opportunities for executive bodies to ensure political rights and freedoms which emerge under the decentralization are detected in the paper. The ways for improvement of the system to ensure the political rights and freedoms by executive authorities of regional level are argued in the thesis.