On 14-15 June 2019, the two-day Conference “Uniformity of Judicial Practice: Opinions of the European Court of Human Rights and the Supreme Court” took place in Kyiv, Ukraine. It was jointly organised by the Supreme Court and by the Council of Europe project “Supporting Ukraine in execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights”, which is funded by the Human Rights Trust Fund.

The Conference brought together over 250 project partners and guests, including judges of the European Court of Human Rights, the Supreme Court, the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine, heads and judges of appellate courts of Ukraine, representatives of the High Council of Justice, the Council of Judges of Ukraine, the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine, the National School of Judges of Ukraine, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Administration of the President of Ukraine, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine as well as representatives of civil society and international organisations, practicing lawyers, academia, as well as representatives and experts of the Council of Europe.

The Conference aimed at discussing the effectiveness of the Ukrainian legal framework and role of the Supreme Court in ensuring the uniformity of national judicial practice as well as bringing it closer to the Council of Europe standards. The focus of the event was also on sharing some good practices of the Council of Europe member states on the reopening of proceedings as a means of ensuring restitutio in integrum following the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.

In the course of the two-day Conference judges of the European Court of Human Rights and the Supreme Court, representatives of other Ukrainian authorities and of institutions of the Council of Europe delivered presentations and participated in discussions on the judicial independence, corruption, execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, re-opening of judicial procedures, implementation of Protocol no 16 to the European Convention on Human Rights, and the role of the Supreme Court in developing solutions to these questions.

Opening speeches at the Conference were delivered by: Ms Valentyna Danishevska, President of the Supreme Court, Mr Fredrik Sundberg, Acting Head of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, Ms Ganna Yudkivska, Judge of the European Court of Human Rights, and Ms Olena Lytvynenko, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine.

During the event, the Acting Head of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the ECtHR – Mr Fredrik Sundberg, and the judges of the European Court of Human Rights – Ms Ganna Yudkivska, Mr Yonko Grozev, Mr Paulo Pinto de Albuquerque, Mr Peter Paczolay, presented their reports with the relevant conclusions and recommendations on various topics related to the uniformity of judicial practice, which is in line with the Council of Europe standards.

The Supreme Court and the Council of Europe project “Supporting Ukraine in execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights” will continue close cooperation to support the improvement of the uniformity of the court practice and its compliance with the Council of Europe standards.

The video from the Conference in Ukrainian is available on the YouTube channel at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5MTaoMpj7Y.

The Council of Europe project “Supporting Ukraine in execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights” is financed by the Human Rights Trust Fund and is implemented by the Justice and Legal Co-operation Department of the Council of Europe. The overall objective of the project is to support Ukraine in the improvement of its national system of execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights that involve violations of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, where the root cause is an issue within the judiciary. The Project is focused on the following areas: independence and disciplinary of judges, effective remedies from non-enforcement of judgments of national courts and from excessive length of judicial proceedings, and on effective mechanisms of cooperation between the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights.

WEB LINKS TO THE EVENT

https://supreme.court.gov.ua/supreme/pres-centr/news/728894/ - Supreme Court

https://uba.ua/ukr/news/6566/ - Ukrainian Bar Association

http://www.nsj.gov.ua/ua/news/ednist-sudovoi-praktiki-kluchoviy-trend/ - National School of Judges of Ukraine

http://yur-gazeta.com/golovna/ednist-sudovoyi-praktiki--ednist-praktikiv.html - Newspaper “Yurydychna Gazeta”