On 21 July 2020, the Council of Europe and the Prosecutor’s Training Centre of Ukraine signed the Memorandum of Cooperation. Its goal is to strengthen cooperation and to formalise the principles of cooperation and joint action in the field of professional training and continued education of public prosecutors in Ukraine.

Ms Olena Lytvynenko, the Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, highlighted the importance of promoting human rights and rule of law and the commitment entered into by Ukraine upon accession to the Council of Europe to transform the prosecution service to be in line with the Council of Europe standards. “The reform of the public prosecution system of Ukraine as a whole is one of the priorities for the Council of Europe, and in this priority a worthy place is occupied by training, professional development of prosecutors, integration of Council of Europe standards into the educational process. It is essential that training is based on the Council of Europe standards and practices, taking into account the European Court of Human Rights case-law. So, it is obviously needed to join our efforts to strengthen the professional skills and capacities of public prosecutors in Ukraine through training and continued professional education in accordance with the best practices and standards of the Council of Europe,” Ms Olena Lytvynenko said.

Ms Olesia Otradnova, the Head of the Prosecutor’s Training Centre of Ukraine, noted the importance of the Council of Europe’s support to the Prosecutor’s Training Centre’s efforts in providing training courses on various topics with a particular focus on the observance of human rights standards in criminal justice. “The human-centeredness of the prosecution system in Ukraine is our goal and we, as an educational center for prosecutors, strive to achieve it. A person, his/her rights and freedoms, dignity, life, and health must be the focus of the prosecutors' work. Thus, the Council of Europe is a strategic partner of the Prosecutor’s Training Centre of Ukraine. That is why it is very symbolic and significant that the Prosecutor’s Training Centre signed its first international memorandum with the Council of Europe,” Olesia Otradnova stressed.

Priority thematic areas for cooperation are the following:

• supporting of the institutional development of the Prosecutor’s Training Centre as a comprehensive training institution to ensure initial and continued training of public prosecutors at central, regional, and local levels;
• enhancing the organisational capacity of the Prosecutor’s Training Centre to run various training courses for different target groups on a regular basis;
• providing expert support in drafting of the relevant concepts, guidelines, internal regulations and other normative acts and policy documents concerning the Prosecutor’s Training Centre and its activities;
• supporting the development of comprehensive curricula comprising various courses on the substantive and procedural laws of Ukraine in the light of the European Convention on Human Rights and the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights and other standard-setting instruments of the Council of Europe and best practices;
• development of soft skills training courses as well as courses on legal and professional ethics;
• supporting the modernisation of the training curricula by developing online training technologies, in particular by making the existing online courses of the Council of Europe HELP Programme (Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals) available in Ukrainian, etc.

The implementation of the memorandum will be carried out within several projects of the Council of Europe which are part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2018-2021, including such projects:

• “Human Rights Compliant Criminal Justice System in Ukraine”,
• “European Union and Council of Europe working together to support the Prison Reform in Ukraine (SPERU)”,
• “The Istanbul Convention: a tool to advance in fighting violence against women and domestic violence in Ukraine”,
• “Protecting national minorities, including Roma, and minority languages in Ukraine”,
• “Supporting Institutions to Combat Ill-Treatment in Ukraine”,
• “Combating violence against children in Ukraine”.