On 27 March 2023, an event was held to launch the new Council of Europe Project "Support to the functioning of justice in the war and post-war context in Ukraine" (hereinafter – the Project). This Project is implemented by the Division of Cooperation Programs of the Department for the Implementation of Human Rights, Justice and Legal Cooperation Standards, Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law, Council of Europe.
The overall goal of the Project is to promote the development of the Ukrainian justice system in line with the standards and recommendations of the Council of Europe in the context of war and post-war period. The main areas of the Project implementation are:
- support for improvement of legislation and judicial practice in line with the Council of Europe standards;
- support for the activities of judicial self-government bodies;
- support for the development and implementation of a comprehensive system of measures to overcome the problems of prolonged non-enforcement of court decisions, excessive length of court proceedings and shortcomings that led to violations of the European Convention on Human Rights in the group of cases of Oleksandr Volkov v. Ukraine.
The Project duration is 2023-2024.
More than 80 partners and guests of the Project, including judges and representatives of the Supreme Court, the High Council of Justice, the Council of Judges of Ukraine and the National School of Judges of Ukraine, as well as the Commissioner for the European Court of Human Rights, representatives of the Coordination Centre for Legal Aid Provision, and civil society and international organizations joined the event on the occasion of the launching of the new Project.
Mr Frederic Dolt, Head of the Department for the Implementation of Human Rights, Justice and Legal Cooperation Standards, Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law addressed the participants of the event with a welcoming speech. In his speech, he emphasized that the Project was prepared jointly with Ukrainian partners and is part of the Action Plan of the Council of Europe for Ukraine "Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction" for 2023-2026. He also noted that the Council of Europe is well aware of the challenges faced by the judiciary in the context of war and outlined the areas in which the Council of Europe will support the judiciary and judicial self-government in Ukraine.
With congratulatory words and wishes for the successful implementation of the new project addressed the following participants: Mr Borys Hulko, Head of the Cassation Civil Court within the Supreme Court; Mr Hryhorii Usyk, Head of the High Council of Justice; Mr Mykola Onishchuk, Rector of the National School of Judges of Ukraine; Mr Bohdan Monich, Chairman of the Council of Judges of Ukraine; Ms Margarita Sokorenko, Commissioner for the European Court of Human Rights.
Mr Andriy Kavakin, Project Co-ordinator, Division of Co-operation Programmes of the Council of Europe, and Ms Iryna Kushnir, Manager of the Project “Support to the functioning of justice in the war and post-war context in Ukraine”, informed the participants about the key components, priorities and expected results of the Project. In addition, national and international experts of the Council of Europe presented the research conclusions:
- Analysis of the practice of the courts of appeal as to its uniformity (Mr Mykhaylo Buromenskiy, Head of the Civic Organisation "Institute of Applied Humanitarian Research", national consultant of the Council of Europe);
- Analysis of application of the cassation filters by the Supreme Court (Mr Andrii Nyzhnyy, Head of the Limited Liability Company «Hillmont Partners», national consultant of the Council of Europe);
- Instruments to ensure uniformity of the practice of the national courts in the Council of Europe member-states: France, Germany, Italy, and Lithuania (Ms Marina Naumovska, international consultant of the Council of Europe).
A general discussion took place at the end of the event. The participants discussed the findings of the research and priority arears for future cooperation with the Project.
