On 11 and 15 June the project organised an Online Round Table with the participation of the Constitutional Court, dedicated to fair trial. The discussions were facilitated by two international experts: Mr Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou, Professor of the University of Liverpool, and Mr Dmytro Tretyakov, Senior Lawyer at the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The program was prepared in close collaboration with legal advisors of the Constitutional Court, who were the main target audience of this activity.

Participants discussed different aspects of the application of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention) through analyses of the relevant case law of the ECtHR, with emphasize on some landmark cases.

Particular attention was given to such questions as reasonable time of proceedings, independence and impartiality of the court, adversarial proceedings, limitations of the right to a court, equality of arms civil and criminal limbs of Article 6 of the Convention. Apart from the presentations and interactive discussions, the participants were involved in practical exercises through group work on hypothetical scenarios involving different aspects of fair trial. Beneficiaries were also provided with relevant materials developed by the ECtHR and the Council of Europe.

This was second online round table which replaced thematic workshops foreseen by the project in order to adjust to the situation caused by the outbreak of COVID-19. The project “Improving the Protection of European Human Rights Standards by the Constitutional Court” is funded by Norway and implemented by the Council of Europe.