Council of Europe supports the Ukrainian authorities in further harmonisation of the criminal procedure legislation and its implementation with Council of Europe standards and best practices. Acting on a request of the Office of the Prosecutor General, the Council of Europe prepared expert opinion to the Draft Law No 7330 “On amending Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine regarding Improvement of the Activities of Joint Investigative Teams”.
Members of the Council of Europe expert advisory group to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine provided the expert opinion of the Draft Law, on the basis of comments by Mr. Jeremy McBride and review by Ms. Nona Tsotsoria. In general, the Draft Law was positively assessed taking into account that its provisions generally reflect best practices in Europe.
At the same time, there are some shortcomings to be addressed. Particularly, it is stressed that certain provisions require more precise formulation, consideration should be given as to the need to allow agreements also to be concluded with the authorities of international or supranational bodies. Furthermore, it should be made clear that investigating judges and prosecutors will not be subject to the direction of the senior investigator in the exercise of their judicial and prosecutorial functions.
The full text of the expert opinion can be downloaded here.
The expert opinion was prepared within the framework of the Council of Europe Project “Human Rights Compliant Criminal Justice System in Ukraine”, which is part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2018-2022.