Dear Proecutor General Venediktova,
Today, the law of the Republic of Ukraine permits consanguineous relationships but it does not allow consanguineous marriage between consenting adults. Incest between consenting adults is legal but Ukrainian law still discriminates against adult consensual incestuously oriented (CIAO) people in adult relationships by prohibiting them from marrying, even if they have children. This is unfair and harmful.

One motto of Ukraine is 'Слава Україні! Героям слава!,' Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes! Another motto is 'Воля, злагода, добро (Volya, zlahoda, dobro) (Ukrainian: Liberty, concord, goodness) but while homosexuality and Adult consensual Incest ( ACI) were de-criminalized after the 1917 revolution, there has been little progress in this area in terms of equality of marriage rights.

Today, people in CIAO relationships ( Consensual Adult Incest Oriented people) cannot legally marry in the Ukraine. That fact, if they want to marry, leaves CIAO people facing private and state institutional discrimination makes them into second class-citizens in their own county.
CIAO people may have children and they too need to be protected and have the same legal rights to marriage as everyone else. CIAO people and their children should not be subject to social stigma or institutional incestophobia and nor should they be deprived of rights that others have who are in consensual adult relationships : the right to marry, and the right to have a mother and a father who are legally married to each other and to the other legal benefits that married people and their children have.

Not all CIAO people may want to marry, but those who wish to should be permitted to do so. To refuse to allow them to marry is a breach of their civil and human rights, and to treat them as different from other people is to discriminate against them and to deny them their their equal rights guaranteed by the constitution.
The Ukraine Constitution states:

Article 24. Citizens have equal constitutional rights and freedoms and are equal before the law. There may be no privileges or restrictions on the grounds of race, color, political, religious or other beliefs, sex, ethnic or social origin, property status, place of residence, language or other characteristics.
Article 51. Marriage is based on the free consent of a woman and a man. Each spouse has equal rights and responsibilities in marriage and family. Parents are obliged to support their children until they reach the age of majority. Adult children are obliged to take care of their disabled parents. Family, childhood, motherhood and fatherhood are protected by the state.

For CIAO people in Ukraine to be legally prevented from marrying due any law or interpretation of the law makes such a law or ites interpretation unconstitutional and therefore there are not valid legal grounds to stop consanguineous marriage or civil partnerships in the Ukraine.
Therefore, as the Prosecutor General, will you please initiate the necessary reform of Ukrainian law so that in future, CIAO people who wish to marry will be able to do so.
Your help in this matter will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much in advance on behalf of CIAO people.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Morris
ICRA
(International CIAO Rights Association).