The launching of the Council of Europe project “Support for judicial institutions and processes to strengthen access to justice in Ukraine” (the Project), which is implemented by the Justice and Legal Co-operation Department of the Council of Europe, was held in Kyiv on 1 March 2021. The Project will be implemented until the end of December 2022.

The overall objective of the Project is to support judicial institutions and processes for effective access to justice in Ukraine, as a result of changes in respective legislation and functioning of courts, judicial institutions and free legal aid system in line with the Council of Europe standards and recommendations.

The Project is focused on the following areas:

- to support the Ukrainian authorities in their efforts to improve legislation on the judiciary and on the free legal aid system, in line with the Council of Europe standards;

- to support the Supreme Court and the courts of lower instances in ensuring the uniformity of the application of law by courts and the proper implementation of the principle of legal certainty;

- to support the development of the free legal aid system, including with regard to the quality of its services in civil and administrative cases.

The launching event of the Project brought together over 70 project partners and guests including judges and representatives of the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, representatives of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Coordination Centre for Free Legal Aid, the High Council of Justice, the Council of Judges of Ukraine and the National School of Judges of Ukraine, as well as representatives of civil society and international organisations.

The event was opened by Mr Christophe Poirel, Director of Human Rights, Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law (DG I), who highlighted that Ukraine had taken obligations to develop its justice system and to bring it closer to the European standards, upon its accession to the Council of Europe. Without an efficient judicial system and independent and impartial courts the country cannot secure and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, as envisaged by the European Convention on Human Rights. He also underlined that the Council of Europe is well aware about the difficult issues that Ukraine faces currently in relation to the functioning of the judiciary: the large number of vacancies in courts, a critical underfunding that leads to a loss of court staff, a necessity to restore public confidence in the judiciary and to undertake effective measures to combat corruption. In this respect Mr Poirel assured that the Council of Europe would be ready to support the Ukrainian authorities so as to prevent the negative developments in the judiciary, also through assistance and support provided by this new Project on access to justice.

The opening remarks were also delivered by Mr Vsevolod Knyazev, Secretary of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, which is the key partner of the Project.

During the event, Mr Andrii Kavakin, Project Co-ordinator, Justice and Legal Co-operation Department, and Ms Iryna Kushnir, Manager of the Project, informed the participants about the key components, priorities and expected results of the Project.