SPERU - Further Support to the Penitentiary Reform in Ukraine

This project was co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in co-operation with the main partners, namely the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the State Executive Service and its interregional branches, the Parliamentary Assembly, the Supreme Court of Ukraine, the General Prosecutor Office, the Ombudsmen Office and Civil Society organisations and other relevant national stakeholders interested in penitentiary reform in Ukraine.

Thanks to this project, Ukrainian authorities have been assisted in the promotion of Human rights in the management of prisons as well as in the further development of a rehabilitative approach to offenders in line with the Council of Europe standards, in particular those of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture an Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), and taking into account the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights.

The Joint Programme (JP) SPERU achieved the following outcomes:

enhancement of Justice system actors’ awareness to proceed with the penitentiary reform based on the Council of Europe standards
partnerships between the justice system, community services and civil society are facilitated to enhance resocialization and reintegration of prisoners
justice system capacity is enhanced to develop and implement healthcare strategy in prisons

Further support to the reforms in the field of prison and the protection of prisoners’ rights is part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2018-2021.

The project implementation started in July 2019 and ended bewteen October 2021 and April 2022.

Project documentation

Useful information

PROJECT NEWS

Back Training on the application of RNA for the prison staff in Ukraine to be continued

@ Council of Europe

The Council of Europe continues to support the Ukrainian prison system by improving Prison management and introducing contemporary approaches in line with the best European practices.

The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine requested additional training sessions on the application of the Risk and Needs Assessment (RNA) Tool and individual sentence planning to other penitentiary institutions, thus increasing the national roll-out and outreach following the successful training delivered to 88 staff members incoming from six selected prisons (see more details here).

Accordingly, twelve additional training sessions are being delivered over the months of May and June 2021 to more than 85 staff from eight Ukrainian penitentiary institutions. As a result, prison practitioners will benefit from this training by improving their know-how and skills on individual sentence planning and conducting the RNA. This support goes in line with the statement of Ms Natalia Rubalka, Deputy Head of the State Department of Execution of Criminal Sanctions of Ukraine, who underlined the necessity to increase the staff's competencies on the RNA Tool application.

This activity is organized within the framework of the EU and Council of Europe Joint Project "Support to Prison Reform in Ukraine - SPERU", which is designed to promote human rights compliant management of prisons, including better alignment of prison healthcare provisions with European standards.

Ukraine 17 May 2021