Watchdog on Ukraine's Decommunization Law: 'It Should Be Simply Abolished'

The Ukrainian law on decommunization in its current version should be abolished as it violates human rights, a prominent international watchdog said Friday.

KIEV (Sputnik) — According to local police, over 50 people were detained in several Ukrainian cities on Tuesday during the World War II commemoration events, most of them in Kiev, over creating public disturbances and using communist-related symbols banned from the public display.

"[The law] should be simply abolished in its current form. It cannot exist," Oksana Pokalchuk, executive director at Amnesty International in Ukraine, told with Ukrainian News agency.

She reiterated Amnesty International's position that one cannot be prosecuted for the display of the communist symbols if this display was not aimed at inciting violence or aggression.

"This law is violating human rights," Pokalchuk said.

According to media reports, Tuesday's World War II commemoration events in Ukraine have been marred by clashes between the events participants and nationalists over the use of communism symbols by the former.

In 2015, Ukrainian authorities adopted a packed of laws on decommunization. Apart from banning the use of Soviet symbols, the legislation stipulates the demolition of monuments commemorating communist figures and renaming streets and inhabited areas named after them.