« On the Path to Justice for Ukraine: Advancing Accountability, Supporting Resilience of its Justice System, and Reuniting Children with Their Families”

11 September 2023, Riga, Latvia

SESSION II: Supporting the resilience of the Ukrainian justice system at the time of war and during post war reconstruction, including investigation of Russia’s war crimes

Address from Christos Giakoumopoulos, Director General of Human Rights and the Rule of Law, Council of Europe

Ministers,

Prosecutor General, 

President,

Excellencies,

First of all, I would like to add my voice to the expressions of gratitude to the Latvian Presidency of the Committee of Ministers – to you, Minister – for organising this important conference.

I am also particularly grateful for having been invited to speak about the Council of Europe’s support to the resilience of the Ukrainian justice system.

Because this is a matter of key importance:

To advance accountability;

To safeguard human rights;

And to consolidate Ukraine’s European future – which ultimately is also important for Europe as a continent and as a process.

We have discussed this morning about international mechanisms and international justice to ensure comprehensive accountability for the aggression against Ukraine -

The ICC and the Prosecutor of the ICC, the European Court of Human Rights, the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression (ICPA) operating within Eurojust.

We are also discussing actively and positively a special tribunal for the crime of aggression, progress in the establishment of which is being made.

The Council of Europe’s Register of Damage is growing as well.

This international machinery is of fundamental importance, but we should not forget that it has a subsidiary role to play – and that both criminal accountability and reparations for the damage caused by the aggression require that the competent Ukrainian national authorities play the central role.

And from day one of the aggression, the Ukrainian authorities have been very clear about their determination to do this –

And to do it in line with European standards on human rights and the rule of law, starting with the ECHR.

This is what the Minister of Justice of Ukraine, Mr Malyuska, explained this morning when he spoke about the impressive and profound reform of the Ukrainian judicial system.

This is where the joint work we are implementing together with our Ukrainian partners in the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine comes into play.

And actually, this work goes beyond the Action Plan, because it is deeply rooted in the work of Council of Europe monitoring bodies, including the European Court of Human Rights’ judgments and the requirements for their execution, and of Council of Europe standard setting and intergovernmental expert work as well – for example on cybercrime, data protection, money laundering, or the confiscation of assets without criminal conviction.

There are different ways of summing up our action – but I would schematize it in three areas.

Firstly: reinforcing the immediate capacity of the Ukrainian Rule of Law machinery, and of the justice system in particular, to ensure criminal accountability.

What do we do?

We support human-rights compliance in handling alleged war crimes and human rights violations – through European Convention on Human Rights-focused expert advice and capacity building for the office of the Prosecutor General and investigators, but also judges and lawyers, including – importantly – legal aid lawyers. This is fundamental because any criminal trial must ultimately be fair, just, compliant to European human rights standards.

Then, we also provide advice and support for the operation of justice system in the war context.

This includes assistance to the War Crimes Department of the Office of Prosecutor General of Ukraine and its territorial units - through institutional capacity building, expert legal and methodological advice, training, land also to some extent with equipment procurement.

Our cooperation portfolio extends to judges, lawyers, Law Enforcement Agencies.

One last example: our Cybercrime office is about to launch a new “CyberUkraine” [CyberUA] project on strengthening capacities on electronic evidence for investigators, prosecutors, judges.

A second priority area of action is the reinforcement of victims’ rights.

This was already discussed today: the Ukrainian authorities are developing a whole range of national redress mechanisms for the reparation of damage caused to individuals and entities.

Some of them are of an administrative nature.

There are also innovations, such as the Prosecutor General’s initiatives to set up a national Register of Victims and Survivors of War Crimes and the Coordinating Center for the Support of Victims and Witnesses. And then of course, courts are seized and are developing case-law on reparations.

To have an impact, these initiatives must be coherent and eventually, they must also be interoperable and connected with the Council of Europe’s international Register of damage.

They must also allow Ukraine to live up to its positive obligations towards victims, under the ECHR.

We are supporting efforts in this direction, notably by doing a comprehensive mapping of the different reparation mechanisms which exist in Ukraine, and we will provide recommendations.

We will finalise this work very soon and we will coordinate very closely with the Ukrainian authorities, with the aim to develop a comprehensive and coherent national strategy on remedies.

Thirdly – and lastly: for many years we have been accompanying Ukraine in its justice reforms, and we are continuing to do this in the war context - where it is essential that the judiciary be capable to handle the immense afflux of cases caused by the war - and from the perspective of Ukraine’s application for EU membership.

Advising on compliance of the judicial system with European standards, strengthening the functioning of judicial self-governing bodies, decreasing the number of vacancies in the judiciary (more than 2000 posts of judges are still vacant, out of a total of about 7000), improving case management, but also the system of enforcement of judicial decisions, a longstanding structural problem.

All this is much needed to reinforce trust by the Ukrainian people in the judicial system – and we are continuing this through our Ukraine-Council of Europe action plan.

For this action to have impact, it requires three things.

Firstly, to listen carefully to the Ukrainian authorities’ needs.

Anything that would not reply to real needs would be vain – and in the current circumstances, no one can afford that.

Secondly, it also requires coordination with international partners, and we are fully engaged in all relevant exercises, including the Ukraine Accountability Dialogue Group and the Working Group on the implementation of Point 7 of the “Peace Formula”, on Justice.

Thirdly and lastly - it requires means to work. 

Financing the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine is the condition for this to happen. So, let me express my deep appreciation for each and every contribution to this effort.

Thank you for your attention.