The Project is a part of the continuous endeavour of the Council of Europe (CoE) to support Ukraine in effective implementation of the European human rights standards with a specific focus on combatting ill-treatment and rehabilitation of victims of torture, privacy rights and data protection as well as other important areas that are placed under the mandate of the Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights and other Project beneficiaries (“the Ombudsperson”).

Overall objective of the Project is to increase the efficiency of the human rights system in Ukraine through bringing the national legislation in line with the European standards and developing the operational capacity of the Ombudsperson’s Office to protect human rights in Ukraine.

The Project focuses its activities on the following areas:

• Strengthening the Ombudsperson’s Office-institutional capacity via improvement of the relevant legal framework, putting in place new policies and internal regulations; professional development of staff in handling grave human rights violations, including the ones reported in the context of the military aggression;
• Alignment of the national policy, legal framework and practice related to combating ill-treatment with the international standards including via further development of the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) to prevent ill-treatment cases;
• Harmonisation of data protection policy and legal framework in line with the European standards and best practices;
• Awareness raising among the national authorities, legal professionals and public on human rights standards with a special focus on prevention of ill-treatment, rehabilitation of the victims of ill-treatment as well as data protection standards.

Implementer:  Department for the Implementation of Human Rights, Justice and Legal Cooperation Standards, DGI of the Council of Europe.

• Duration: 24 months (15 September 2022 – 14 September 2024)
• Budget: 900,000 €
• Funding: Voluntary contributions

• Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and relevant Parliament Committees;
• Office of the Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights;
• law enforcement authorities;
• prosecutors and judiciary;
• lawyers and Bar Association of Ukraine;
• national professional training institutions (National School of Judges of Ukraine, Training Centre for Prosecutors, National Academy of Internal Affairs)

• Verkhovna Rada/Parliament of Ukraine
• Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights
• Supreme Court of Ukraine
• Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine
• Ministry of Justice of Ukraine
• Ministry of Interior Affaires of Ukraine
• Ministry of Health of Ukraine
• National professional training institutions and universities

• Expert report with the situational analysis and recommendations on the further steps in the Ombudsperson’s Office development
• Opinion on the Draft law of Ukraine “On personal data protection” 
• Legal review on the Draft Law “On amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine on improving the legal basis of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights” and provisions of other relevant laws

• Comments on the Draft law of Ukraine “On the National Commission for Personal Data Protection and Access to Public Information”