Criminal Liability for Embezzlement of Humanitarian Aid

Abstract

The article under study carries out a complex analysis of a new element of a criminal offense (envisaged by Article 201-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) “The Illegal Use of Humanitarian Aid, Charitable Donations, or Gratuitous Aid to Receive Gain”. Besides, it substantiates the expediency of criminalizing such illegal behavior and reveals some potentially problematic issues that may arise in the course of bringing a person to criminal liability for such actions, as well as offers the possible ways of their solution.
 russia’s armed aggression, as well as the necessity to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine and internally displaced persons have intensified volunteer activity, the latter having acquired an unprecedented scale throughout the country. Consequently, there has occurred considerable increase of both the number of humanitarian cargoes and the number of pseudo-volunteers or unscrupulous officials, who pursue their own mercantile interests and cynically make money, selling humanitarian aid. All this could not remain unnoticed by the state and led to the adoption of a special legal norm in the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
 Particular emphasis has been laid in the article on the mandatory components and signs of basic, qualified and especially qualified elements of criminal offense. Along with this, the peculiarities of the subject of such illegal behavior (charitable donations, humanitarian and gratuitous aid), as well as the respective amounts of the latter, which give grounds for bringing criminal responsibility, have been regarded in detail. In addition, the article contains a conclusion on an unreasonably high minimum limit of the aid under discussion. As for the objective side of the offense, such an extremely important feature in today’s conditions as the time of its commission – during a state of emergency or martial law – is separately emphasized. Having used this word combination, the legislator has replaced the already established in criminal law wording “under conditions of war or state of emergency”, which always indicated such a feature as the circumstances of the crime. The subject of the offense has been considered with a due regard to its overall and specific signs. Another emphasis has been laid on the necessity to criminalize the respective socially dangerous activities of both official volunteers and officials who, although not vested with official powers, may (in connection with their position) have access to humanitarian aid items and actually dispose of them, etc. The subjective side of the offence appears rather interesting in terms of its purpose – to receive gain. The latter looks quite questionable since until now, such a phrase was used only in the context of the actual consequences of the subject’s illegal behavior. Therefore, the legislator should emphasize not on the fact of receiving gains but on the mercantile context of its disposal.