Final Conference of the CoE Project “Continued support to the criminal justice reform in Ukraine”, funded by the Danish government

13 June 2019, Kyiv 

Dear Deputy Minister,

Dear Deputy Prosecutor General,

Your Excellency, Ambassador Madsen,

Esteemed Judges, Prosecutors, Lawyers, Civil Society Experts,

Distinguished Guests,

I am delighted and honoured to welcome you at today’s Final Conference of the Council of Europe Project “Continued support to the criminal justice reform in Ukraine”.

This Project has been part of the continuous effort of the Council of Europe to support Ukraine in the fulfilment of its commitments as a member State of the Organisation. Although it is primarily the responsibility of national authorities to “bring human rights home”, the Council of Europe is keen to support its member States in this major endeavour through its cooperation activities.

The Project is a good example of fruitful cooperation with the Ukrainian authorities and our long-standing partnership with the Danish government, which is funding this Project and to which I would like to express my sincere gratitude.

In the current context, where resources are scarce, the support granted by one member State to enhance democratic processes in another one is most valuable.

The Project which is coming to a close today is one of many projects the Council of Europe carries out to support the reforms in Ukraine in the areas relating to three key pillars on which our Organisation stands: Democracy, the Rule of Law and Human Rights. 

The necessity to accelerate and deepen the reforms in the criminal justice field in Ukraine is supported by the findings and recommendations of the Council of Europe monitoring statutory and treaty bodies, as well as by the judgments of the European Court on Human Rights concerning the functioning of the criminal justice system in Ukraine.

Fostering respect for human rights and the rule of law is a constant process. It does not happen in one day. It takes time, effort, dedication and political will. This Project is one in a string of projects on this topic which the Council of Europe has been implementing in Ukraine over the last decade or so.

During the past years the CoE has supported Ukraine with major policy, constitutional and key legal and institutional reforms in the criminal justice area. As a result:

• The New Criminal Procedure Code is in force and the institutionalised legal aid system is in place since 2013;
• New Laws on the Public Prosecution Service, on the National Police and on the State Bureau of Investigations were adopted in 20142015 and the corresponding institutional reforms have started;
• Framework policy documents such as the justice sector reform strategy 20152020 and the Constitutional amendments regarding justice have been in place since 2016.

The Project we are closing today was designed with three main focus areas:

1. providing full-fledged support to the implementation of the prosecution service reform in line with Council of Europe standards;
2. strengthening the access and quality of legal aid, given its importance in securing the right to a fair trial; and
3. enhancing civil society’s participation in the reform processes.

Today’s Conference provides a forum for reflection on many points concerning these reforms. It will enable us to discuss the key developments which have taken place within the prosecution reform process and the legal aid development in Ukraine for the past 3 and half years.

I would like to commend the Ukrainian authorities for the important steps taken in relation of the reform advancements. I will not go into the details of all achievements which will be mentioned, I am sure, during the Conference and are documented in the Project Brochure which you have in your hands. I will just mention a few, which demonstrate the existence of a solid basis to ensure the independence, professionalism, effectiveness and transparency of the prosecution service and the legal aid system. 

• The constitutional, legal and internal regulatory frameworks of the beneficiary institutions is now more closely aligned with the Council of Europe standards;
• The capacity of both the prosecution service and the legal aid system to implement institutional and operational reforms has been strengthened;
• The capacity of the legal aid system to provide accessible and quality legal assistance has been enhanced;
• The prosecutorial selfgovernance and qualification/disciplinary bodies were established, and are operational; and safeguards to ensure their independence and effective functioning have been improved;
• Knowledge management systems and mechanisms in both the prosecution and legal aid services have evolved;
• Skills and knowledge to ensure better human rights protection in prosecutorial and legal aid practices have advanced;
• The Project carried out an independent organisational analysis of the Office of the Prosecutor General (the first one in the history of the Ukrainian prosecution service) and provided recommendations;
• Transparency of key partner institutions has further advanced and public confidence in these institutions has increased;
• Reform cooperation mechanisms between the authorities and civil society have been developed.

With most of the legal framework in place, the effective implementation is the key to completing the reform processes. We need to build on what has been achieved and address the outstanding challenges.

The reform’s progress is under the watchful eye of the international community and, most importantly, the Ukrainian civil society. The society has to be aware of the successes, benefits for professional community and public, as well as the remaining challenges.

Remedies to the challenges include amendments to the legal framework. This, in turn, requires cooperation with the legislator. In this regard, the Council of Europe’s cooperation with the Parliamentary Law-Enforcement Committee has been of especially good quality, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Chairman of the Committee, who participates in the Conference today.

Currently, a set of amendments as regards the facilitation of the effective functioning of the Qualification Disciplinary Commission of Prosecutors, as well as full de-politicisation of the appointment of the Prosecutor General are pending before the Parliament. The Council of Europe has issued opinions on this and recommendations were recently reiterated in the GRECO IV Round of Evaluation Report on Ukraine.

I would like to encourage the Ukrainian authorities to follow-up these recommendations with a view to strengthening the independence of prosecutorial independence.

As regards the enhancement of the legal aid system in Ukraine, I would like to highlight the developments which have taken in this regard and which constitute a true success story. Figures speak for themselves: around 2000 legal aid recipients at the start of the work of system in 2013 grew to about 1 million at the end of 2018. We are glad to be one of the key partners that contributed to the very important institutional developments of the system. Key improvements included the merit-based open competition for the position of Legal Aid Coordination Centre Director; the adoption of a new concept of the Legal Aid governance model and the start of the introduction of the Legal Aid quality assurance mechanism based on the “Peer review” model. I sincerely hope that the Ukrainian Legal Aid system will build on these achievements.

I would not be true to myself, if I did not mention the challenges remaining ahead of us. The material and procedural criminal legislation requires further amendments to address outstanding issues, while the actors responsible for the application of this legislation need to have the capacity to fully implement it in line with the European Convention on Human Rights. The prosecution reform also needs to continue. Institutional independence of the Public Prosecution Service and the procedural independence of individual prosecutors need to be further promoted. The Public Prosecution Service and the prosecutorial self-governance, disciplinary and qualification bodies need to become more efficient and professional. Last, but not least, the public confidence needs to further increase.

Distinguished Partners, Dear participants of the Conference,

The Council of Europe stands ready to continue to provide its support in regard to the criminal justice reform process within the framework of the current Action Plan between the Council of Europe and Ukraine agreed for 2018-2021. We stand ready to help ensure that relevant regulatory, institutional and operational frameworks enable the functioning of the overall criminal justice system, a system which is:

• fair, efficient and respectful of human rights and fundamental freedoms;
• effective in the fight against criminality;
• corresponds to the principle of integrity and is accountable at both institutional and individual levels; and last, but not least
• enjoys the trust of the public.

As I indicated before, the transparency of the reforms process and the active involvement of civil society are vital to its success. A precondition for achieving the ultimate goal is that All involved, at All levels are genuinely committed to perform their duties in accordance with the rule of law and in the spirit of the reforms.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

To conclude, let me express my gratitude to all national stakeholders, non-governmental and international counterparts for their cooperation and firm commitment to our joint efforts to improve the human rights situation and strengthen the rule of law in Ukraine. Once again I would like to thank the Danish authorities for their financial contribution to this Project. And finally, I would like to thank the experts who have been involved in the project for the invaluable input, as well as my colleagues from the Kyiv office for their excellent support.

I look forward to our continued joined endeavours for the coming future and wish everyone a successful Conference.