On 28 July 2020, Council of Europe held an online event dedicated to the issues of the excessive length of proceedings in Ukraine as established in the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights in the Svetlana Naumenko and Merit groups of cases. The objective of the event was to present expert opinions and exchange ideas about legislative proposals introducing effective remedies for solving the problem of the excessive length of proceedings in Ukraine. The topics covered during the event included, among others, expert recommendations on the effective remedies to secure judicial proceedings within a reasonable time as well as effective mechanisms permitting the collection of data on the length of court proceedings based on the good practices of the Council of Europe member states.

Ms Lilit Daneghian-Bossler, Head of Justice Sector Reform Unit 1, Justice and Legal Co-operation Department of the Council of Europe, underlined the importance of solving the issue of the length of unreasonable length of judicial proceedings in Ukraine as established by the European Court of Human Rights in Svetlana Naumenko and Merit groups of cases which are pending execution. Noting that the judiciary being understaffed was one of the key issues requiring a solution in this regard, Ms Daneghian-Bossler stated that the authorities need to take concrete further steps to ensure execution of the aforementioned judgments.

Mr Tygran Karapetyan, Head of Eastern Partnership and Russia Unit of the Human Rights National Implementation Division of the Council of Europe mentioned that through providing expert assessment of the relevant legislation and the comparative analysis on the topic of length of proceedings, the Council of Europe has been supporting and will continue to support the working group under the Supreme Court of Ukraine tasked with developing legislative changes necessary for addressing the issues related to the length of proceedings. He also noted that the event, with the participation of the key stakeholders, provided a good forum for discussions and exchanging ideas about next steps and possible legislative proposals for solution of the problem of excessive length of proceedings in Ukraine.

Mr Mykola Mazur, Judge of the Criminal Cassation Court within the Supreme Court of Ukraine, noted that the excessive length of proceedings is a serious problem to the access to justice and efficiency of the judiciary in general. He acknowledged that the excessive length of proceedings is a systemic, recurrent problem in Ukraine, solution of which needs a comprehensive and strategic approach. He thanked the Council of Europe for organizing the event and noted that the joint discussions with the Council of Europe experts and key national stakeholders would be conducive to elaborating such a comprehensive approach for finding solutions to the system problem of the unreasonable length of judicial proceedings.

Experts of the Council of Europe, including the staff of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, representatives of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, members of the Supreme Court Working group tasked with solving the issue of the excessive length of proceedings, judges of the appellate courts of general jurisdiction and the High Anti-Corruption Court, members of the High Council of Justice, State Judicial Administration of Ukraine and the National School of Judges as well as representatives of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Ministry of Justice, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, civil society and international organisations participated in the event.

The event was jointly organised by the Supreme Court of Ukraine and the Council of Europe projects “Further support for the execution by Ukraine of judgments in respect of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights”, which is funded by the Human Rights Trust Fund, and “Human Rights Compliant Criminal Justice System in Ukraine” implemented under the Action Plan for Ukraine 2018-2021.