The quality of education and training of judges’ is an urgent issue for Ukraine, especially in the context of the judicial reform, which began in 2014. The National School of Judges of Ukraine is actively working in this direction, in particular, in cooperation and with the support of the Council of Europe projects*. Thus, in 2018 the “Election Dispute Resolution” training curriculum was developed, and in 2019 more than 100 judges from 30 Ukrainian administrative courts of appeal and district administrative courts passed the trainings designed on the basis of this curriculum (for more information: http://bit.ly/2S5etNY).
The International Regional High Level Conference “Protecting Human Rights through Judicial Education: Best Practices and Improvement of Standards” was also dedicated to improving judicial education and respective standards and took place on 9-10 December in Kyiv on the initiative of the National School of Judges in cooperation with the Supreme Court and with the support of the Council of Europe**. During the conference representatives of 15 Schools of Judges from Western and Eastern Europe, the Directorate General for Human Rights and the Rule of Law of the Council of Europe, experts of the Council of Europe, Ukrainian and foreign judicial education professionals were able to exchange experiences and best practices in the field of judicial education, discuss practical implementation of the ideas and values of the rule of law, as well as guarantees of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Mykola Onishchuk, Rector of the National School of Judges of Ukraine, spoke about adherence to standards in the field of judicial education and, in particular, noted that for having unified judicial education and the best training of the staff there is a need for well-defined standards, mechanisms, forms, tools and approaches necessary for judicial activity.
“Citizens’ trust in justice depends on prosecutors, lawyers, investigators and judges,” stressed Regis Brillat, Special Advisor of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe for Ukraine . Mr. Brillat welcomed the introduction of the unified entrance exam for Master of Law programmes and emphasized the need for Ukraine to “adopt new legislation on higher law education that would further strengthen educational programs, models of study and approaches in higher education institutions and universities”.
The two-day event went by quickly but effectively: based on the results of the conference, Kyiv recommendations for improving education for judges with regard to the application of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, and the implementation of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights were approved, that will help to approximate the system of judicial education of Ukraine to the European standards.
The full record of The International Regional High Level Conference “Protection of Human Rights through Judicial Education: Best Practices and Improvement of Standards” is available at:
* The training was organized with the support of the Council of Europe Projects “Supporting the transparency, inclusiveness and integrity of electoral practice in Ukraine” and “Supporting constitutional and legal reforms, constitutional justice and assisting the Verkhovna Rada in conducting reforms aimed at enhancing its efficiency”
** The conference was organized with the support of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe Projects “Supporting the transparency, inclusiveness and integrity of electoral practice in Ukraine”, “Supporting constitutional and legal reforms, constitutional justice and assisting the Verkhovna Rada in conducting reforms aimed at enhancing its efficiency”, “Promoting social human rights as a key factor of sustainable democracy in Ukraine”, “Internal displacement in Ukraine: building solutions”; “EU and Council of Europe working together to support freedom of media in Ukraine”
