On 26 November, the Execution Department presented the Ukrainian version of the thematic factsheet “Effective investigations into death or ill-treatment caused by security forces” to Ukrainian prosecutors and investigators. Participants included representatives of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office, the State Bureau of Investigation, the Training Centre for Prosecutors and the Ministry of Justice / Office of the Government’s Agent before the European Court. The translation of the factsheet, issued in July 2020 by the Execution Department, was supported by the Council of Europe Project “Supporting Institutions to Combat Ill-Treatment in Ukraine”, and drew on the Committee of Ministers’ recommendation that member States should ensure professional training in the system of the ECHR taking into account the national context and the specific needs and expectations of the targeted public.
The factsheet focuses on the following major elements of effectiveness of investigations, established in the Court’s case-law and supervised by the Committee of Ministers: independence; adequacy; promptness; investigating special motives of crime; independent oversight; and reparation for victims. It sets out a number of examples of measures adopted and reported by States, in the context of the execution of the European Court's judgments, in order to safeguard and reinforce effectiveness of investigations.
The Committee of Ministers examines these issues notably in the context of the Kaverzin, Afanasyev, and Belousov groups of cases concerning mainly torture and other forms of ill-treatment by police agents and lack of effective investigations, which are scheduled to be reexamined at the March 2021 CM Human Rights meeting.
New factsheet on Effective investigations (in Ukrainian)
