On March 23, the online round table ‘Latest developments in the context of the general measures required for the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the cases of “Yurii Nikolayevich Ivanov v. Ukraine” and “Burmych and Others v. Ukraine» was held. This event was organised by the Council of Europe project “Further support for the execution by Ukraine of judgments in respect of Article 6 of the European Court on Human Rights” (the Project), which is funded by the Human Rights Trust Fund.
The event was attended by over 40 participants: judges and representatives of the Supreme Court, representatives of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, the State Treasury Service of Ukraine, the Pension Fund of Ukraine, the High Council of Justice, the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, representatives of the civil society and international organizations, representatives and experts of the Council of Europe.
‘The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe called on the Ukrainian authorities to take decisive action to address the problem of non-execution of judgements by adopting a comprehensive package of legislative and institutional reforms without further delay. We welcome the adoption of the recommendation on the implementation of ECtHR decisions by the Committee on Legal Policy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the adoption by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of an action plan for the implementation of the National Strategy for eliminating the problem of non-execution of national judgments. Both actions show the desire of the highest authorities to solve this large-scale problem of non-execution’, said in her welcoming speech Ms Lilit Daneghian-Bossler, Head of Justice Sector Reform Unit 1, Justice and Legal Cooperation Department, Council of Europe.
The round table was organized, among other things, to inform about the latest decision of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe as of March 2021 regarding the execution of ECtHR judgments by Ukraine in the cases of “Yuriy Nikolayevich Ivanov v. Ukraine” and “Burmych and others v. Ukraine”. For example, Ms Yulia Gendlina, Legal Officer of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe, presented the Memorandum on the execution of judgements in the Burmych group, which analyses the National Strategy, general measures adopted and those measures which require urgent implementation for the full execution of the mentioned judgments.
‘It is necessary to adopt a comprehensive legislative package to address the problem of non- execution, develop the necessary action plan to implement these changes, establish and implement effective remedies, both compensatory and preventive. I am convinced that this event will allow us to hear the views of all stakeholders: the Council of Europe, the Committee of Ministers, experts and the authorities, which will certainly help to solve the problem that we have’, said Mr Roman Babiy, Chair of the Subcommittee for the execution of the ECtHR judgments of the Committee on Legal Policy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Mr Pavlo Pushkar, Head of Division of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe, mentioned the compliance of the measures taken by Ukraine for the execution of the judgments of Burmych group with the latest requirements of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
‘The National Strategy and its Action Plan are very important internal documents that the state must adopt in the context of execution of judgements of such complex cases, in order to reach the appropriate level of implementation of ECtHR judgements. These documents must be synchronized with the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights and with the requirements of the decisions of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe’, noted Mr Pavlo Pushkar.
The recommendations aimed at improving the Ukrainian system of enforcement proceedings in accordance with the relevant standards of the Council of Europe were also discussed during the event. Thus, Mr Jos Uitdehaag, international expert of the Project spoke about revision of the Ukrainian enforcement system as a part of the required package of reforms in the context of the execution of the judgements of the Burmych group of cases. Mr Oleksandr Oliynyk, Director of the Directorate of Justice and Criminal Justice of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, focused on the issue of elaboration of the single draft law on reforming the enforcement system in Ukraine. National experts of the Project Mr Andrii Avtorgov and Mr Oleksii Solomko also joined to the discussion of this issue.
‘Having developed a clear plan for the implementation of the National Strategy, combined with a systemic approach to the elaboration of legal policy in the country which is based on monitoring of adopted and implemented regulations; also taking into account the systemic work of the Verkhovna Rada to plan its activities – all these will change the situation for the better’,- noted Mr Oleksandr Oliynyk.
As a result of the discussion participants noted the need to integrate positions of the representatives of executive and legislative branches to the strategic documents which are adopted in order to solve long-term problems of the non-execution of judgments. Also, participants discussed possible ways of co-operation to efficiently address the identified challenges and reach tangible results in 2021.
