Continued Support to the Criminal Justice Reform in Ukraine

25 November 2015

“Continued Support to the Criminal Justice Reform” – the Project in brief

Ukraine is going through a difficult economic and political transition aggravated by an important security crisis. These circumstances challenge the implementation of thorough reforms within the country. At the same time, as a Council of Europe member state, Ukraine is committed to European democratic values. What is crucial after 20 years of membership to the Organisation is to transform this commitment into concrete measures to ensure an adequate protection to human rights and fundamental freedoms and enforce the rule of law principle.

For years, the criminal justice system of Ukraine has been ineffective in fighting corruption and impunity, has insufficiently protected the human rights of those involved, and has failed to uphold rule of law principle. As a result, it has been largely distrusted by the public. Also, this has led the European Court of Human Rights to find Ukraine in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, too many times. The recent reports of the International Advisory Panel on the Maidan and Odessa investigations confirm these shortcomings. For these reasons, the criminal justice system of Ukraine is in need of reform, an urgent and thorough reform.

This reform is necessary to respond to a strong social demand in Ukraine. The reform should be unprecedented by its scale and expected effects. The areas covered include the judiciary, the public prosecutor’s office, the system of pre-trial investigation, the rights of the defence, etc. As already outlined today, there is clearly visible progress in the legislative dimension. Important initiatives to implement the new legislation have already been launched as well. However, it is crucial that the laws are fully implemented with new and modern approaches, that meaningful institutional changes take place so that the reform does bring the expected and tangible results.

The initiation of the new Project “Continued Support to the Criminal Justice Reform in Ukraine” with the Danish Government’s support is a clear manifestation of the Council of Europe’s sustained endeavour to assist Ukraine to fulfil its obligations in the criminal justice field, as a member state of the Organisation. It is best placed to do so because in the areas covered in criminal justice, the CoE has developed standards and recommendations and deploys a large array of cooperation activities in view of promoting them in its member states, including Ukraine.

The Project was developed in close consultations with the Ukrainian stakeholders. It is based on a thorough analysis of the justice sector background and objectives for strategic development as viewed by the national authorities, the CoE and other important development partners. It is also in line with the main policy and strategic documents adopted by the Ukrainian authorities.

Of course, we did not start from scratch, we have built on the results achieved within the previous CJR project. Thus, the new Project will aim at 1) supporting the implementation of the reform of the prosecution service in accordance with the Council of Europe standards and best practices, and 2) supporting the system of free legal aid in view of ensuring the access to quality legal assistance as part of the right of access to justice, in line with Council of Europe standards.

The Project’s areas of intervention will include:

Further alignment of the regulatory framework: after the adoption of the Constitutional amendments, subsequent legislative changes will be required. Furthermore, there is a need for the development of the secondary legislation for the new prosecutorial self-governance and support bodies Further improvement might be required on some aspects of the regulatory framework concerned with the operation of both the prosecutor’s office and the free legal aid system. The Project aims to provide extensive expertise and support in undertaking these initiatives in line with CoE standards and best practices.

Institutional reforms: the institutional capacities of the public prosecutor’s office (including GPO, regional and local PPOs) and the Coordination Centre for Legal Aid Providing along with the centres providing free secondary legal aid will be strengthened. The support will include a wide range of actions. New institutional structure and operational procedures, modern tools and mechanisms of management and administration, quality assurance and performance evaluation, effective communication strategies and policies, initial and continued training systems for legal professionals will be developed with the Project’s support.

Increasing awareness and improving participation: the cross-cutting elements for the Project will be transparency and accountability in the reform process, inclusiveness of the decision-making and broad cooperation in the implementation. This will be done by facilitating the active engagement of the civil society in the process, by explaining the reforms to the public, and increasing the knowledge of those targeted by them.

The Project will also support the interaction between the public prosecution and the state secured defence with a view to achieving a stronger coherence of the reforms. This will further contribute to the effectiveness of the practical realisation of the principle of adversarial criminal proceedings, introduced by the new Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.

The Council of Europe will not work with these two institutions in isolation. Many international development partners are also supporting Ukraine in its reform efforts. We will make sure to combine our efforts to achieve a real impact together.

What do we plan to achieve as a result of the implementation of the Project?

The reform of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine is implemented according to the Council of Europe standards and best practices transforming it into an independent, efficient, transparent and accountable institution. This implies that:

  • The independence of the PPO, as a crucial institution of the criminal justice system, is strengthened;
  • The independence of individual prosecutors as regards their procedural attributions is effectively safeguarded;
  • The self-governing bodies of the PPO are operational and possess the resources indispensable for a proper implementation of their statutory functions;
  • The organisational structure and operational framework are effective, with decentralised and modern management practices and new working methods;
  • The knowledge and skills of the individual prosecutors and managers at the central and local levels is improved through training.

The system of free legal aid of Ukraine ensures strengthened access and enhanced quality of legal assistance, as part of the right of access to justice in line with Council of Europe standards. This implies that:

  • The analytical and monitoring capacities of the Coordination Center for Legal Aid Providing and its regional branches are enhanced to support the policy development and more efficient administration of the FLA system in criminal matters;
  • The management practices and working methods are further improved and supported by relevant operational tools;
  • Effective mechanisms are put in place to assess and strengthen the accessibility and quality of the FLA in criminal matters throughout the country;
  • The FLA training system to enhance knowledge and skills with regards to criminal justice is made sustainable by its gradual institutionalisation, building up of the internal training capacities, standardisation of training programmes, the development of new training courses and materials etc.

Active public participation is facilitated in the processes of reforming the PPO and strengthening the FLA system, public confidence in these institutions is increased. This implies that:

  • The reforms are implemented in a transparent and participatory manner and are accompanied by information and awareness raising campaigns;
  • The information on fundamental human rights and their protection mechanisms, as well as the activities of the public prosecution service and the free legal aid, are regularly communicated to the public, stakeholders and professional groups at the central and local levels;
  • Civil society organisations actively monitor the implementation of the reforms and participate in the policy formulation and implementation practices.

The project will be implemented during a 42 month period, from 1 September 2015 to 28 February 2019.

Preparation for the implementation of some activities, which are among immediate priorities, has already been launched, which include the large-scale training of more than 650 newly recruited heads and deputy heads of the local Public Prosecutor’s Offices, as well as the comprehensive assessment of the FLA system. For the rest, the project’s Work Plan will be further developed and adjusted during the inception phase until December 2015.

All these results will be achieved thanks to the strong commitment of the Prosecutor Generals’ Office and the Coordination Center for Legal Aid Providing and the fruitful cooperation the Council of Europe enjoys with them. We are delighted that we have already defined clear priorities of action to ensure a successful implementation of the Project.

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