On 26 February 2020, an online meeting of the Supreme Court Working Group tasked with solving issues of an excessive length of court proceedings (in the context of the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in the Svetlana Naumenko/Merit groups of cases) was held.
The event was attended by over 60 participants: representatives of the Supreme Court, High Council of Justice, State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Prosecutor’s General Office, High Anti-Corruption Court, as well as representatives and experts of the Council of Europe.
«Through the activities of our working group, we would like to make analytical steps in two directions: to identify the current situation with this problem and to identify the most relevant way for Ukraine to solve this it. I am confident that the conclusions of this discussion will be a basis for working group’s further activity and they will form a concrete vision that will require legislative changes and organizational measures needed to progress the problem of excessive length of court proceedings in Ukraine over the next six months», said in his welcoming speach Mr Rasim Babanly, Chairman of the Working Group and Head of the Department of Analytical and Legal Work at the Supreme Court.
The objective of the event was to discuss measures and priority tasks for 2021 to address the problem of excessive length of court proceedings and execution of decisions in the cases of “Svitlana Naumenko v. Ukraine" and "Merit v. Ukraine", taking into account the requirements of the Interim Resolution of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe of 1 October 2020, as well as relevant expert recommendations.
Head of Division at the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the ECtHR (Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe) Mr Pavlo Pushkar made a presentation on the topic “Execution of the group of ECtHR judgments Svetlana Naumenko/Merit: prospects of examination by the Committee of Ministers in 2021”:
“We have had two systemic structural problems regarding the implementation of general measures that have not been resolved by the Government and Ukraine for more than 20 years. It is a priority for the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. State authorities are trying to achieve changes in this issue through expert and technical cooperation with the Council of Europe. Such working groups are actively working on this topic not only in terms of legislation, but also in terms of managerial problem in the approach of excessive length”, among other things said Mr Pavlo Pushkar.
During the event international experts of the Council of Europe projects "Further support for the execution by Ukraine of judgments in respect of Art.6 of the European Convention on Human Rights” and "Human Rights Compliant Criminal Justice System in Ukraine" Mr Adis Hodzic and Mr Jeremy McBride (respectively) delivered the following presentations: “Introduction of a comprehensive statistical data collection system to ensure the reasonable length of court proceedings in Ukraine” (Mr Adis Hodzic) and “Recommendations for the introduction of effective remedies against lengthy judicial proceedings in Ukraine” (Mr Jeremy McBride).
Following the presentations Mr Oleksandr Drozdov (Chairman of the Committee of the National Association of Advocates of Ukraine on Free Legal Aid) and Mr Yevhen Kruk (Judge of the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine) joined the discussion.
As a result of the mentioned discussion, it was agreed to continue work in several areas, namely the development of legislative changes to implement the necessary legal remedies, further preparation of statistical information on the duration of proceedings in all courts, as well as the creation of a judicial monitoring and evaluation system.
