Ukraine: Supporting Ukraine in the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights

project title

Further support for the execution of judgments in respect of Article 6 of the European Court of Human Rights

Project duration

The duration of the project is 20 months (1 November 2019 to 30 June 2021)

Project budget

Euro 800 000

project partners

Supreme Court, Parliamentary Committee on Legal Policy and its Subcommittee for the execution of the ECtHR judgments, Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and the Government Agent before the European Court of Human Rights.

Brief description of project

The project will be implemented in Ukraine, in co-operation with the main Ukrainian counterparts – the Supreme Court and the Government Agent before the European Court of Human Rights. The project is managed by the Justice and Legal Co-Operation Department of the Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law.

Key issues to be addressed

prevention of nonexecution of judgments of national courts;
development of remedies concerning excessive length of judicial proceedings;
improvement of access to justice and strengthening judicial independence;
building effective procedures related to interaction between the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights.

overall objective

To support Ukraine in providing accessible, full and effective justice through the execution of judgments in which violations of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights are established.

project components

1 – Solving the issue of non-execution of national judgments

Aim of the component: to support Ukraine in meeting the measures defined with regard to the issue of non-execution of judgments of national courts in the European Court of Human Rights judgments of “Zhovner v. Ukraine”, "Yuriy Nikolayevich Ivanov v. Ukraine", "Burmych and others v. Ukraine".

2 – Solving the issue of the excessive length of judicial proceedings

Aim of the component: to support the Ukrainian authorities in further introduction of effective remedies, aimed at compensation and acceleration of the judicial proceedings, as well as other practical measures to be taken by the Ukrainian authorities through the codes of judicial procedure (the cases of “Svetlana Naumenko v. Ukraine”, “Merit v. Ukraine”).

3 – Improvement of access to justice and strengthening judicial independence

Aim of the component: to support Ukraine in further implementation of the Council of Europe standards on the improvement of access to justice in line with the certain judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (in the cases of “Nataliya Mikhaylenko v. Ukraine”, “Feldman and Slovyanskyy Bank v. Ukraine”, “Tserkva Sela Sosulivka v. Ukraine”, “Viktor Nazarenko v. Ukraine”, “Frida, LLC v. Ukraine”, “Sokurenko and Strygun v. Ukraine”, “Mykhailova v. Ukraine”) and strengthening judicial independence (the Volkov group of cases).

4 – Building the effective procedures related to interaction with the European Court of Human Rights

Aim of the component: to support the Supreme Court in building effective procedures on interaction with the European Court of Human Rights, with a focus on the implementation of the Protocol No. 16 to the European Convention on Human Rights and as to the reopening of judicial proceedings following a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (the cases of “Bochan v. Ukraine (no. 2)”, “Yaremenko v. Ukraine (no.2)” and “Shabelnik v. Ukraine (no.2)”).

Expected results

The Ukrainian national strategy on the prevention of non-execution of judgments of national courts is finalised, adopted by relevant Ukrainian bodies, and the start of implementation.

Within the Ukrainian legislation, the national remedies concerning the excessive length of judicial proceedings are developed and started to be introduced, in parallel with the introduction of other relevant general measures.

A set of recommendations towards the improvement of access to justice and strengthening judicial independence in Ukraine are provided and are implemented.

Ukraine’s Supreme Court is supported in building effective procedures related to interaction with the European Court of Human Rights.

Ukrainian website

Direct access to Ukrainian website.

News

Retour Third Annual Forum: Execution of judgments of national courts in Ukraine

Ukraine: Further support for the execution of judgments in respect of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights

On 5 November 2020, the annual forum “Execution of judgments of national courts in Ukraine” (The forum) was organised for the third consecutive year by the Council of Europe project “Further support for the execution by Ukraine of judgments in respect of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights”, which is funded by the Human Rights Trust Fund, and the All-Ukrainian public organisation “Ukrainian Bar Association”.

The forum brought together over 200 project partners and guests, including the President and other judges of the Supreme Court, Deputy Prime Minister and Chair of the Government Commission for the execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, Chair of the Committee on Legal Policy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and other members of the Ukrainian parliament, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine – Agent before the European Court of Human Rights and other representatives of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the members of the High Council of Justice, Deputy Head of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, the representatives of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as the representatives of civil society and international organisations, namely the USAID New Justice Program, EU Project “Pravo-Justice”, the OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine.

Overall, the forum aimed to discuss the major structural problem of non-execution of national judgments (identified in the Yuriy Nikolayevich Ivanov and Burmych judgments of the European Court of Human Rights), as well as measures and priorities to be implemented within the next year for eliminating this problem. This complex issue reveals one of the most important aspects of the serious systemic deficiencies in the functioning of the justice system in Ukraine and, thus, seriously affects the rule of law and access to justice. Therefore, the forum provided an opportunity for representatives of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, civil society, and international organisations to debate proposals and necessary actions.

The forum was opened by Mr Christos Giakoumopoulos, Director General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe, who underlined the importance of full-fledged implementation of indispensable general measures to address the problem of non-execution of judgments by all national partners at all levels, who must be genuinely committed to performing their duties under the national and international obligations. The opening remarks were also delivered by key contributors of the Human Rights Trust Fund – Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway to Ukraine, Mr Erik Svedahl, and Head of the Legal and Consular Department of the German Embassy in Ukraine, Mr Carsten Meyer-Wiefhausen.

Ms Hanne Juncher, Head of Justice and Legal Co-operation Department of the Council of Europe, moderated the first session of the forum about the key developments that have taken place over the past year and steps necessary to take in order to achieve progress towards meeting international obligations and the Council of Europe standards. During this session, Ms Clare Ovey, Deputy Head of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, delivered a presentation on the fundamental provisions and principles to be stated in the national strategy aimed at tackling the issue of non-execution of judgments. Also, Mr Pavlo Pushkar, the Head of Division of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, pointed out the key requirements for the elaboration and adoption of a comprehensive legislative package as the priority measure requested by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

Based on the forum discussions, the recommendations for further necessary measures were developed and later announced by Mr Ivan Lishchyna, the Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine – Agent before the European Court of Human Rights. These recommendations will be disseminated to all relevant Ukrainian and international counterparts for their further implementation.

The video from the forum is available on the YouTube channel

Videoconference 5 November 2020