Right to Petition

Any citizen of the Union and any natural or legal person residing or having its registered office in a Member State has the right to petition the European Parliament.

Article 44 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU

Text as of March 2026

This right is part of a broader system of guarantees for democratic participation in the EU. Article 41 of the Charter enshrines the right to good administration, the ability to address EU institutions and receive a response. Articles 24 and 227 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU detail the mechanism for addressing petitions to the Parliament.

In Ukraine, a similar guarantee is contained in Article 40 of the Constitution of Ukraine: everyone has the right to address individual or collective petitions to state authorities and local self-government bodies, which are obligated to consider them and provide a reasoned response within the established time limit. Similar provisions are set forth in Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Based on research and human rights advocacy practice, we have identified the following challenges to realizing this right in Ukraine:

The declaratory nature of the petition system. Even a petition with the required number of signatures does not obligate the authority to take specific action. Responses are usually formal and lack substantive dialogue. Petitions are often not considered by the authority to which they are addressed. The fragmentation of platforms, disproportionate thresholds for collecting signatures at the local level, the lack of transparency in the review process, the confusion between petitions and regular requests, and the selective and arbitrary censorship of petitions through refusal to register them all exacerbate the situation.
The blurring of administrative procedures and public communication. Current legislation does not distinguish between two fundamentally different types of communication: those that initiate an individual administrative decision through an administrative procedure (applications, complaints, requests) and provide for a full set of procedural guarantees (the right to be heard, access to materials, the duty to provide justification) and those that are a form of public communication (proposals, comments, petitions) and require a simplified procedure aimed at dialogue and do not require a formal decision. The lack of this distinction simultaneously burdens public authorities with unnecessary procedural requirements and deprives citizens of adequate protection where decision-making is mandatory.
Unjustified expansion of the scope of petition addressees. Contrary to Article 40 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the legislation includes private enterprises, institutions, and organizations—including public associations and the media—in the list of entities responsible for reviewing petitions. This contradicts the constitutional right to petition public institutions. This right is, by its nature, a public-law right and is directed at state authorities and local self-government bodies, as well as their officials.
Potential pressure on civil society and the media. Imposing additional obligations on public organizations and the media regarding the consideration of petitions creates a risk of indirect administrative pressure on them or interference in their freedom of activity, this contradicts the constitutional guarantees of freedom of association and freedom of the media. Relations with private entities must be governed exclusively by civil law and their internal rules and do not fall within the scope of the constitutional right to petition.
Restrictions on the right to petition based on migration status. The requirement to confirm the legality of stay in Ukraine as a condition for exercising the right to petition contradicts the universal nature of human rights. Any person under the jurisdiction of the state must have a channel of communication with the authorities regardless of their immigration status, as their claims may be based on international law, which Ukraine is obliged to observe. This restriction deprives entire categories of persons of the means to protect their rights where the state must ensure them.
Restrictions on the right to petition for foreigners from abroad. International practice recognizes the right of foreigners to address petitions to the government authorities of another state; however, current regulations create the risk of an unjustified narrowing of this right. This limits opportunities for international advocacy and the participation of concerned parties in public dialogue with Ukrainian authorities.
Preservation of outdated organizational requirements. Requirements such as personal meetings with the head of the agency, mandatory signatures by the head of the agency, and paper submissions with physical signatures and seals are archaic. These approaches make inefficient use of administrative resources, slow down the process, and effectively prevent some citizens from participating.
Extending procedural guarantees of administrative proceedings to petitions. The excessive formalization of petition review, particularly the granting of the right to be present during the review process or to review case materials, brings mechanisms from individual administrative proceedings into this sphere. This creates the illusion of accessibility and protection when, in reality, we are dealing with a significantly simpler communicative tool.

What Ukraine Needs to Do During the EU Accession Process to Improve the Situation:

Ukrainian legislation must, in accordance with EU requirements, distinguish between the legal regulation of individual administrative proceedings (governed by the right to good administration under Article 41 of the Charter and the Law of Ukraine on Administrative Procedure) and mechanisms for citizen participation in public life, which must include matters related to petitions (petitions under Article 44 of the Charter, the European Citizens’ Initiative under Regulation 2019/788, and the Law of Ukraine on Citizens’ Appeals [Petitions]). In light of this, the Law on Citizens’ Appeals (Petitions) requires urgent amendments.
Introduce proper universal legal regulation for all petitions and clear criteria for petition admissibility. If a petition falls within the competence of the relevant authority and concerns the public interest, it must be considered on its merits. It cannot be a disguised administrative request subject to consideration through individual proceedings (administrative procedure). Legislation must clearly define an exhaustive list of petition requirements, circumstances that lead to refusal of petition registration, and a mechanism for appealing refusal of petition registration.
Ensure public consideration of mass petitions. Petitions that have gathered the required number of signatures cannot be considered in closed session: the results of their consideration must be the subject of public hearings, parliamentary debates, or a mandatory public response from the authorized body.
Introduce a mechanism for legislative initiative through petitions. A petition that has reached the established support threshold must automatically become a mandatory subject of consideration in the form of a legislative initiative or a regulatory act, which will ensure a real, rather than merely declarative, influence of citizens on lawmaking. The authority is not obligated to adopt the proposed act but must consider it through the appropriate public procedure.
Establish a specialized committee mechanism. Following the example of the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions, a separate body should be established within the structure of the parliament and/or the executive branch with the authority to conduct public hearings, request information from other bodies, and publish reasoned responses to the petitions considered.
Establish a digital channel for submitting applications and a unified electronic registration system. The introduction of a unified platform for submitting, registering, and tracking the status of applications is a fundamental prerequisite for the effective functioning of the institution in modern conditions and must cover all levels of public authority.
Ensure cross-border accessibility of the application system. In the context of European integration, Ukraine must prepare its administrative apparatus and digital systems for processing petitions to interact with EU citizens, ensuring they can submit petitions to national and local authorities in accordance with the standards in force in member states.
Legislatively restrict the scope of petition addressees by public authorities. It is necessary to legally establish that petitions may be addressed exclusively to state authorities, local self-government bodies, and their officials and civil servants. Private entities, including civil society organizations, businesses, and the media, do not possess governmental authority and do not bear legal responsibility for addressing petitions; therefore, they cannot be subject to the corresponding public duty.
Extend the right to petition to all persons regardless of their migration status. It is necessary to formalize in legislation that the right to petition belongs to every person under the jurisdiction of the state, regardless of citizenship or migration status. The requirement to confirm the legality of residence as a condition for exercising this right contradicts the universal nature of human rights.
Ensure the right of foreigners residing abroad to address petitions to state authorities. Foreigners residing outside Ukraine must have mechanisms for communicating with Ukrainian state authorities, which must be explicitly provided for by law.
Introduce safeguards against abuse of the right to petition. Legislation must provide grounds for refusing to consider petitions that show signs of abuse, particularly the systematic submission of an excessive number of petitions by a single individual.
Eliminate outdated procedural requirements in handling petitions. The requirement that government officials receive citizens in person and that responses be signed directly by the head of the agency must be abandoned, as this constitutes an inefficient use of resources without improving processing quality. Agency discretion should remain in organizing internal processes. The digital format for submitting petitions should be legally established as equivalent to the paper format, with no additional requirements.
Legislatively limit the permissible subject of appeal in the context of petitions. It must be clearly defined that a response to a petition is not a decision by a government agency and cannot be appealed on its merits. The only permissible subject of appeal should be the failure to provide a response within the established time limit or the failure to consider the petition.

Minimum mandatory requirements for harmonizing legislation following Ukraine’s accession to the EU:

For candidate countries and EU member states, there is a set of minimum standards regarding the exercise of the right to petition, derived from the Charter, the EU Treaties, and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the ECHR:

Universality of the right to petition. Legislation must guarantee the right to petition for all individuals, regardless of their citizenship, immigration or legal status. Any person whose rights or interests may be infringed must have access to a communication mechanism with public authorities.
Limiting the scope of addressees to public sector entities. The obligation to consider petitions and provide reasoned responses rests exclusively with state authorities, local self-government bodies, and their officials and civil servants.
Ensuring an effective remedy. In accordance with ECHR practice, the administrative petition review process must guarantee objectivity and impartiality, a substantive response, and compliance with reasonable response timeframes.
Respect for the right to be heard in administrative proceedings. If a petition addresses an issue that an authority intends to address with a measure that would negatively affect an individual, that individual must have the opportunity to express their position before the relevant decision is made.
Ukraine must take measures to legally ensure the functioning of the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), as well as establish similar mechanisms at the national level.
Ukrainian legislation should more clearly define the oversight function of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights regarding the consideration of requests, petitions, and petitions within administrative procedures as a legal remedy for the protection of human rights.
Draft Law No. 11082 “On Appeals” (Petition) requires substantial revision to address the requirements outlined above, as the draft’s version for the second reading (December 2025) does not meet these requirements.

For a more detailed overview of the EU and Ukraine’s acquis and case law related to this right, and the rationale for our recommendations, please see the research section of this page. Specifically, see the document available only in Ukrainian: Legal Opinion of the Center for Civil Liberties on Draft Law No. 11082 “On Petitions and Appeals”. If you have any feedback or comments about this material, please send them to: hrmap@ccl.org.ua.

Experts

Tymofii Atamanchuk

Legal Analyst, NGO “Center for Civil Liberties”

Volodymyr Yavorskyy

lawyer, human rights defender, program director of the NGO "Center for Civil Liberties"