Overview of the practices of the Council of Europe member states in introducing effective remedies to solve the problem of the excessive length of judicial proceedings 
On 15 and 29 July 2020, the Council of Europe Project “Further support for the execution by Ukraine of judgments in respect of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights” (the Project) and the High Council of Justice jointly organised and held public discussions of the Annual report of the High Council of Justice for 2019 “On Ensuring the Independence of the Judiciary in Ukraine” at the regional level.
Judges and representatives of the Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Sumy, Luhansk, Donetsk, Ternopil, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Poltava, Kropyvnytskyi, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Khmelnytskyi and Mykolaiv local courts and courts of appeal, members and representatives of the High Council of Justice, representatives of the Dnipro, Lviv, Chernivtsi, Odesa and Kharkiv regional branches of the National School of Judges of Ukraine, the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine and its relevant Regional departments, the Judicial Protection Service, representatives of law-enforcement authorities in the regions, civil society and international organisations, and the representatives and experts of the Council of Europe participated in these events.
The purpose of the events was to present and discuss the Annual Report of the High Council of Justice for 2019, as well as the expert opinions related to it, among a wide range of participants from the Ukrainian regions, share views on strengthening independence and impartiality of the judiciary in Ukraine in the context of the standards and recommendations of the Council of Europe, as well as discuss the execution by Ukraine of the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights in the Oleksandr Volkov group of cases.
Ms Lilit Daneghian-Bossler, Head of the Justice Sector Reform Unit of the Justice and Legal Cooperation Department of the Council of Europe pointed out in her opening remarks that the public discussions of the Annual Report of the High Council of Justice for 2019 among the local representatives of the Ukrainian judiciary and civil society organisations were of utmost importance as they provided an opportunity to identify and discuss problems arising at the local level. These discussions raise the issues of the independence of the judiciary in Ukraine, access of the Ukrainian citizens to appropriate and unbiased system of justice and the right to fair and impartial trial under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) at a rather high public level.
Ms Olena Lytvynenko, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, noted that an effective, independent and impartial judiciary is one of the cornerstones of guaranteeing the rule of law and democratic principles in society and the compliance with the requirements set out by Article 6 of the ECHR. She also emphasised that the Council of Europe provided, for the third consecutive year, support to the High Council of Justice in presenting and discussing annual reports on ensuring the independence of the judiciary in Ukraine at the regional level. The Council of Europe, in the framework of the Project, issued recommendations as to the structure of Annual Reports, supported the improvement of their drafting process and ensured the integration of the Council of Europe standards with regard to the judiciary.
Mr Andrii Ovsiienko, Chairman of the High Council of Justice, underlined the intention of the Council to make the Annual report “On Ensuring the Independence of the Judiciary in Ukraine” a substantive, rather than formal, tool to ensure the independence of the judiciary in Ukraine. A notice was also made of a novelty approach of the High Council of Justice to presenting its Report, in the form of the Council initiative to discuss it at the parliamentary hearings in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, which would enable raising the professional discussion at a completely new level.
Mr Pavlo Pushkar, Head of Division of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the ECtHR of the Council of Europe, pointed out in his presentation that the principles of separation of powers, irremovability of judges and guarantees for the security of their tenure were indispensable standards of the independence of the judiciary. Pavlo Pushkar stressed that the inconsistent judicial reform together with the unbalanced measures are already taken could finally destroy the judiciary as the core element of the legitimacy of the state authorities, the law and the need for compliance with the relevant European standards provided for by the number of international instruments. At the same time, Pavlo Pushkar pointed out the importance of the fact that the Constitutional Court responded institutionally to the constructive criticism from the European institutions towards the reforms of 2016 and 2019 in Ukraine and reacted positively by declaring the specific provision of the relevant laws, in particular, Article 375 of the Criminal code of Ukraine, inconsistent with the Constitution. In summary, it was noted that the independence of judges was beneficial for the society in whole, protected individuals, strengthened opportunities to exercise one’s rights and increased public trust in the judiciary.
Ms Diana Kovacheva, the international expert of the Council of Europe, and Ms Iryna Kushnir, the national CoE expert, presented at the event their opinions on compliance of the Annual report of the High Council of Justice for 2019 with the Council of Europe standards. The experts provided also recommendations as to measures to be taken to enhance the independence and impartiality of the judiciary.
Following the discussion, its participants supported, among the articulated proposals, the standpoint expressed by the judges that underfunding of courts and reduction of the judges’ remuneration were unacceptable as they directly affected the independence of the judiciary. The problem of interference with the activities of judges and the need for the law-enforcement authorities to effectively respond to such cases were discussed separately.
The Council of Europe Project “Further support for the execution by Ukraine of judgments in respect of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights” is funded by the Human Rights Trust Fund and implemented by the Justice and Legal Co-operation Department of the Council of Europe.
WEB LINKS TO THE EVENT