The Council of Europe's DECOPRIS project continues its active engagement in supporting penitentiary reform in Ukraine. On May 1st the inaugural meeting of the newly established Working Group on Penitentiary Reform and Probation Development took place. It was initiated by members of the Advisory Expert Council under the State Criminal-Executive Service of Ukraine.
The meeting brought together key national and international stakeholders, including representatives of the Ministry of Justice's Departments of Public Law and Criminal Sanctions Execution, international partners such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the EU "Pravo-Justice" Project, national academics in criminal and penitentiary law, and the Council of Europe’s DECOPRIS project.
The working group approved its Statute and a tentative plan for drafting the new legislative acts, which starts with developing a new law on the penitentiary system. Discussions focused on shaping a modern, humane national penitentiary model grounded in European values and legal principles.
Opening the session, Yevhen Horobets, Head of the Department for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions, stressed the urgent need to modernise the outdated legislative framework currently guiding the penitentiary system. “We must work together to promptly update the criminal-executive legislation and develop modern draft laws on the penitentiary system and the disciplinary statute,” he emphasized.
Professor Yevhen Barash, Doctor of Law and Head of the Working Group, noted: “The diversity of opinions and approaches in preparing the draft law will help us formulate a contemporary and humanistic legal document aligned with Ukraine’s European direction.”
The draft law is expected to improve the management structure of the penitentiary system, provide for the adequate levels of staff salaries and other benefits and solve many other outstanding issues that are required to build a modern penitentiary system in Ukraine, that supports rehabilitation, respects human rights, and fosters sustainable change.
European Prison Rules
