On 11 June, the Committee of Ministers decided that the supervision of the Balitskiy group of cases can be continued under the standard supervision procedure given the progress made by the Ukrainian authorities in the execution of these judgments.
This group concerns the applicants’ convictions on the basis of self-incriminating statements made in the absence of a lawyer and in circumstances giving rise to a suspicion that the confessions had been given against the applicants’ will.
In the leading judgment of 2011, the European Court ruled under Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights that Ukraine must urgently implement legislative and administrative reforms to resolve the problems which led to the violations. The authorities took measures to address these indications by adopting the new Code of Criminal Procedure and the Free Legal Aid Law, which were enacted in 2011-2012 and provide for an extensive range of human rights safeguards in criminal proceedings, including as regards access to a lawyer, free legal representation and solid standards on evidence.
In its decision adopted in June 2024 the Committee of Ministers welcomed the authorities’ efforts to effectively implement the above-mentioned safeguards in practice, including the development of the domestic courts’ case law which appears capable of preventing similar violations in the future. The Committee encouraged the authorities to continue their efforts and decided to transfer the supervision of this group from the enhanced to the standard procedure.
