Briefing of the International Advisory Panel

10 September 2014

Six months since the end of the tragic events of Maidan, the International Advisory Panel on Ukraine provides a briefing on its activities and progress to date, with an indication of future steps until the completion of its final report scheduled for early 2015.

1. The Mandate and role of the Panel

The Panel was constituted by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe with the role, at present, of overseeing the investigations into the violent incidents arising out of the Maidan protests in Kyiv from 30 November 2013 to 21 February 2014. The Panel has principally focussed on the investigations into particular incidents, including those which took place early in the morning of 30 November, 1 December 2013, 19-22 January 2014 and 18-21 February 2014.

The Panel’s function is to establish whether those investigations meet all the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights and the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. Those requirements are, principally, that the investigations are independent, that they are carried out promptly and expeditiously, that they are adequate and effective and that there is sufficient public scrutiny and involvement of the victims or of families of the victims.

It follows that it is not the role of the Panel to conduct investigations into, or to establish facts concerning, the violent incidents in question. That is for the competent Ukrainian investigatory authorities. Nor is the Panel to examine individual cases. The Panel’s role is rather to examine and report on whether the authorities’ investigations into the events as a whole comply with international standards.

2. The constitution of the Panel (April 2014)

With the appointment of its members in April 2014, the Panel was constituted. The Panel is chaired by Sir Nicolas Bratza, who is a former President of the European Court and its members are Mr Volodymyr Butkevych, a former Judge of the European Court, and Mr Oleg Anpilogov, a former prosecutor of Ukraine.

The Panel’s Mandate was sent, also in April 2014, by the Secretary General to the Prime Minister of Ukraine and, pending a response, the Panel held its first working meeting in Strasbourg on 5-7 April. A response was received from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine by letter of 1 May 2014, in which letter the Minister reiterated that the Government welcomed the composition of the Panel and undertook to facilitate its work.

3. Seeking information about the investigations (May-August 2014)

The Panel met a week later, on 5-7 May 2014. It began its work by requesting, in letters dated 14 May 2014, detailed information from certain authorities, including the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Health, as well as the Mayor’s Office in Kyiv. Requests were also addressed to certain Parliamentary Committees and to the Rada Interim Commission of Enquiry. The Panel also sought information from the Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights. Through its internet page (http://coe.kiev.ua/iap/index-en.html), the Panel invited NGOs to make submissions. A deadline was set for the provision of this information with a view to a mission of the Panel to Kyiv at the end of June 2014.

Several national human rights groups made joint submissions, as did Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. However, owing to the inadequacy of the responses of the authorities, the Panel was required to postpone its planned mission to Kyiv.

The lack of proper responses was raised by the Chairman of the Panel with President Poroshenko, initially in writing and, subsequently, in a meeting in Strasbourg on 26 June 2014. At the same time the Panel proposed the appointment of a Focal Point in the Presidential Administration to facilitate its work. In his address to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe later that day, President Poroshenko endorsed the work of the Panel and confirmed that the authorities were ready to cooperate with the Panel so as to ensure that those guilty of Maidan-related crimes would be prosecuted.

The Panel reiterated its requests for information by letters dated 26 June, fixing a new time-limit of 18 July 2014 for receipt of responses.

The Chairman also visited Ukraine on 4 July to meet with the relevant authorities to follow up on the Panel’s requests. In a series of meetings, Sir Nicolas met, amongst others, the Advisor to the President, Mr Oleg Makhnitskyy, who had been appointed as the Focal Point for the Panel in the Presidential Administration, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Pavlo Klimkin, the First Deputy Minister of Justice, Ms Inna Yemelyanova, and the Prosecutor General, Mr Vitaliy Yarema.

Fuller information was indeed submitted by certain of the authorities, notably the Prosecutor General’s Office, in answer to the Panel’s second round of requests. On 30 31 July the Panel met in Kyiv in order to review the information received and it held further contact meetings, on 1 August, with the Prosecutor General, with a deputy to the Minister of the Interior, and with Deputy Ministers from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Justice.

A third round of written requests for information followed (dated 5 August). Some responses were received, in particular from the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry of the Interior.

4. Detailed examination of the information submitted, with the relevant actors (September 2014)

In mid-August invitations were issued to relevant actors to attend substantive meetings with the Panel in Kyiv in early September.

Those meetings took place on 3-5 and 8-9 September. The Panel were able to put detailed questions, drawn from the written submissions, to representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Justice. The Panel further met with the Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights. Meetings also took place with representatives of certain NGOs namely, the recently formed ‘Families of Heroes of Heaven’s Hundred’, the human rights groups who had made the joint submissions and Amnesty International. A contact meeting also took place with Mr Makhnitskyy, the Panel’s Focal Point in the Presidential Administration.

On 10 September, the Ministry of Health made further written submissions.

5. Steps towards a final report

It is likely that there will be two further rounds of written questions and meetings focussed on the key investigating authorities. The Panel’s objective is that, by 30 November 2014, it will have concluded its enquiries, obtained final submissions from the authorities and received up-to-date information on the status of all Maidan-related investigations, with a view to the finalisation and adoption of the Panel’s report in early 2015. In fulfilment of its Mandate concerning the Maidan events, the Panel will furnish its Report to the Secretary General and to the Ukrainian authorities, making public the date of its submission. Meantime, in a letter to the Secretary General, the Ukrainian government confirmed its acceptance that the tragic events of 2 May 2014 in Odessa also should be covered by the panel, which has expressed its readiness to investigate these events.