On 28 September 2016, the round table on the status of execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Oleksandr Volkov v. Ukraine and Salov group of cases took place in Kyiv. The event was organized jointly by the Council of Europe project “Support to the implementation of the judicial reform in Ukraine” and the Government Agent before the European Court of Human Rights.
The event was a follow-up to the previous work launched by the Council of Europe within the project “Strengthening the system of judicial accountability in Ukraine” in 2015, aimed at supporting the Ukrainian authorities in the implementation of the conclusions of the European Court of Human Rights provided in the above judgments.
During the round table participants representing the legislative, executive and judicial branches of power, as well as the civil society and international organisations discussed the impact of the Constitutional amendments concerning judiciary on the execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in question, and also exchanged the views as regards further measures necessary for a full execution of the European Court of Human Rights judgments in the case of Oleksandr Volkov v. Ukraine and Salov group of cases.
Mr Pavlo Pushkar, the Head of the Division of the Department for the Execution of the European Court of Human Rights Judgments, spoke about the supervision of the Committee of Ministers of Council of Europe over the execution of the European Court of Human Rights judgments, inter alia in the category of cases it issue.
During the discussion the participants emphasised that, beyond the full execution of the said judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, the following questions gain all the more importance in the context of judicial reform:
- Ensuring independence of judges and preventing arbitrary interference into performance of their functions, as well as ensuring respect to the judiciary in line with standards and recommendations of the Council of Europe;
- Efficiency of the system of judicial disciplinary, together with the judges’ right to appeal against the disciplinary decisions;
- Importance of the dialog of the authorities with each other and with the Council of Europe institutions in the process of implementation of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.
Links to the web mentions of the event on the Ukrainian websites:
