ILLEGAL USE FOR PROFIT OF HUMANITARIAN AID, CHARITABLE DONATIONS OR FREE ASSISTANCE: A REVIEW OF LEGISLATIVE FORMULATIONS

Abstract

The article is devoted to a review of legislative formulations regarding the illegal use of humanitarian aid, charitable donations, or free assistance for profit. It has been established that the norm on the illegal use of humanitarian aid is blanket, which necessitates the need to turn to regulatory legislation. Before the emergence of the norm on the illegal use of humanitarian aid, such actions received a criminal legal assessment under other articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, since the corresponding criminal and unlawful acts were already criminalized at the legislative level in other categories of criminal offenses. Given this, it can be argued that the legislator, aiming to criminalize liability for the illegal use of humanitarian aid, actually differentiated criminal liability. Placing the rule on the illegal use of humanitarian aid, charitable donations, or free assistance for profit among criminal offenses in the field of economic activity is based on the subjective vision of the legislator, which cannot always be considered logical and consistent. The illegal use of humanitarian aid may be covered by both the system of criminal offenses against property (Chapter VI) and criminal offenses in the field of official and professional activities related to the provision of public services (given the special status of the entity (Part 2, 3 of Article 201-2) (Chapter XVII). The sign of the purpose of making a profit, despite its diverse interpretation, allows law enforcement agencies to qualify the actions of the entity as the illegal use of humanitarian aid. The appearance in the Criminal Code of Ukraine of Article 201-1 “Illegal use for profit of humanitarian aid, charitable donations or gratuitous assistance” creates unjustified competition of criminal law norms and raises more questions than answers, which necessitates its exclusion.