30 September – 1 October 2021 the X Annual Judicial Forum “Independent judiciary – the basis of the state in time of turbulence” which was organised jointly by the project of the Council of Europe "Support for judicial institutions and processes to strengthen access to justice in Ukraine" and the All-Ukrainian NGO “Ukrainian Bar Association” and with the support of LCF Legal Group.

The main objective of the event was to discuss currently central issues related to operation of the judiciary in Ukraine and its development in line with the standards and recommendations of the Council of Europe.

During the Forum the discussions on the following topics took place:

• the connection of the society development and the judiciary;
• new tools for simplifying access to justice – recommendation of the Council of Europe and Ukrainian development;
• mediation: principles of the Council of Europe and possible ways of their implementation in Ukraine;
• judicial reform: risks and perspectives;
• ensuring the uniformity of application of law by courts: the recommendations of the Council of Europe and the achievements of the judiciary of Ukraine;
• procedural dilemmas as challenges for ensuring the right to a fair trial;
• antitrust disputes;
• enforcement of the European Court of Human Rights.

The Forum was opened with welcoming words by Steen Nørlov, Head of Office, Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on the coordination of cooperation programmes of the Council of Europe, Lilija Gretarsdottir, Head of the Division of Co-operation Programmes, DG-I, Council of Europe and Lilit Daneghian-Bossler, Deputy Head of Division of Cooperation Programmes, Implementation of Human Rights, Justice and Legal Co-operation Standards Department, Council of Europe, Strasbourg and Anna Ohrenchuk, President of the Ukrainian Bar Association, Managing partner at LCF Law Group, Program Coordinator of the Forum

Lilit Daneghian-Bossler noted that the Ukrainian judicial system has been subject to numerous changes in recent years, with some of those changes perhaps lacking a consistency and that very high numbers of vacancies for judicial posts are still pending. With reference to the Joined Opinions of the Venice Commission she reiterated that filling of the judicial vacancies should be a first urgent step.

Lilija Gretarsdottir insisted on the necessity to take measures for strengthening of the execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights delivered against Ukraine, in particular pilot judgments the Yuriy Nikolayevich Ivanov/Burmych judgments related to non-execution of the national courts judgments. She highlighted that judicial reform cannot be considered successful if final courts judgments could be left without execution.

Under the support of the Council of Europe project “Support for judicial institutions and processes to strengthen access to justice in Ukraine” international consultants and representatives of the Counсil of Europe participated in the Forum: Rimantas Simaitis, international expert of the Council of Europe (Lithuania); Nina Betetto, President of the Consultative Council of European Judges, judge of the Supreme Court of Slovenia, international expert of the Council of Europe; Dmytro Tretyakov, Lawyer of the European Court of Human Rights, Deputy Registrar of the Administrative Tribunal of the Council of Europe; Olha Dubinska, Legal Officer of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights of the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe; Pavlo Pushkar, Head of Division of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe.