On May 15-16, 2024, representatives of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine visited the headquarters of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France. The delegation consisted of management and representatives of the Department for International Legal Cooperation of the Office of the Prosecutor General.
The main purpose of the visit was to exchange on the Council of Europe standards, experience and best practices of international co-operation in criminal matters, on crime prevention and control and discuss challenges encountered in the application of Council of Europe Conventions in this field and identify options for their solutions.
During his welcome speech, Frédéric Dolt, Head of Department for the Implementation of Human Rights Justice and Legal Cooperation Standards, Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe, highlighted that the Office of the Prosecutor General is one of the key partners for the Council of Europe within the Organisation’s Action Plan for UA 2023-2026, under which major Council of Europe technical assistance is channeled to Ukraine. Mr. Dolt reassured that the Council of Europe stands firm in its support for Ukraine and its institutions during the critical period of the war of aggression. He emphasised the importance of holding those accountable for international crimes in Ukraine, while underscoring the necessity for investigations, prosecutions, and trials to adhere to the principles of the rule of law and the standards set forth in the European Convention of Human Rights.
The Russian Federation's war of aggression against Ukraine has presented Ukrainian prosecution authorities with new challenges in the realm of international cooperation in criminal matters. In this regard, the visit provided for the platform of exchange on various points of mutual interest for the Ukrainian delegation and the Council of Europe bodies. The meeting with the members of the Council of the Europe’s Committee of Experts on the Operation of European Conventions on Co-operation in Criminal Matters (PC-OC) was at the core of the visit, organised on the margins of the Plenary Session of the PC-OC.
During the visit, the delegation also met with representatives of the Secretariat of the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Secretariat of the Council of Europe’s Directorate of Legal Advice and Public International law of the Council of Europe (DLAPIL), the Secretariats of the European Committee on Crime Problems, of the Consultative Council of the European Prosecutors (CCPE) and of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), as well as the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights and the Department for the Execution of the Judgments of the Court.
The visit concluded with the Ukrainian delegation attending the Official Commemorative Ceremony of the Council of Europe’s 75th anniversary at Strasbourg Opera House. The visit was organised within the framework of the Council of Europe Project “Fostering Human Rights in the Criminal Justice System in Ukraine”, which is part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience. Recovery. Reconstruction” (2023-2026).
