On 13 July 2017 the Government Agent before the European Court of Human Rights organized a second meeting of the interagency working group aimed at developing solutions to the problem of lengthy civil and criminal proceedings in Ukraine, and drafting recommendations on possible preventive and compensatory remedies.

Representatives of the Council of Europe project “Support to the implementation of the judicial reform in Ukraine” participated in the meeting as the members of the above interagency working group. The event was also attended by the representatives of the Parliament of Ukraine, the Supreme Court of Ukraine, the High Specialized Court of Ukraine for Civil and Criminal Cases, the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine, the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, the Office of the Prosecutor General, the National Police of Ukraine, civil society organisations.

During the second meeting, the participants discussed the Draft Concept on solving the issue of the lengthy civil and criminal judicial proceedings in Ukraine and exchanged ideas on possible preventive and compensatory remedies at the national level. The Draft Concept was developed by the Centre for Judicial Studies on request of the Council of Europe Project “Support to the implementation of the judicial reform in Ukraine”. Also, the second meeting was attended by the expert of the Council of Europe, who presented the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights and the official documents of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe outlining effective remedies in the Council of Europe member states with regard to the issue of the lengthy judicial proceedings.

The inter-agency working group for developing solutions to the systemic problem of excessive length of pre-trial and judiciary proceedings in Ukraine was established by Order of the Minister of Justice of Ukraine of 21 March 2017 no. 884/7. The working group consists of representatives of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of power. The first meeting of the inter-agency working group was organized by the Government Agent before the European Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe project “Support to the implementation of the judicial reform in Ukraine” on 23 March 2017. More information about the first meeting of the working group can be found at the link

https://www.coe.int/en/web/kyiv/-/on-23-march-2017-the-council-of-europe-supported-the-first-meeting-of-the-inter-agency-working-group-for-developing-solutions-to-the-systemic-problem-.

According to the official statistics of the European Court of Human Rights and of the Government Agent before the European Court of Human Rights, in Ukraine the problem of the lengthy civil and criminal proceedings is a second largest systemic problem (after the non-enforcement of domestic judgments) raised in the applications to the European Court of Human Rights in cases against Ukraine.

The Council of Europe project “Support to the implementation of the judicial reform in Ukraine” aims at ensuring further compliance of the Ukrainian system of judiciary with the standards and recommendations of the Council of Europe. One of the components of the Project is dedicated to supporting Ukrainian authorities in ensuring efficient execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.