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Acting Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Yurii Baulin held a meeting with the Director of the Directorate of Human Rights of the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe Christos Giakoumopoulos
On May 20, 2017 Acting Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Yurii Baulin held a working meeting with the Director of the Directorate of Human Rights of the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe Christos Giakoumopoulos which was followed by technical consultations on the implementation of the European Court of Human Rights judgements in respect of Ukraine.
The meeting was attended by the judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Mykhailo Hultai, Viktor Kolisnyk, Oleksandr Lytvynov, Volodymyr Moisyk, Oleksandr Tupytskyi, Serhii Vdovichenko, Head of the Division of the Department for execution of judgements of the European Court of Human Rights of the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe Pavlo Pushkar, staff of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
The main task of the working visit was the establishment of a technical dialogue between the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and the Directorate for Human Rights on issues related to matters that are under the control of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
Acting Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Yurii Baulin told the guests about the constitutional reform in Ukraine and the current activities of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, taking into account the amendments to the Constitution introduced in September 2016, and paid special attention to the importance of the adoption of the draft law on the Constitutional Court of Ukraine by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. He informed the guests about the new powers of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, namely, introduction of the right to individual constitutional complaint. "We hope that the introduction of the constitutional complaint in Ukraine will reduce the burden on the European Court of Human Rights", stressed Acting Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
The ratio of the Constitution of Ukraine and the European Convention on Human Rights is a crucial issue, noted Yurii Baulin. "And that is why the topic of the Second Congress of the Association of Constitutional Justice of the Countries of the Baltic and Black Sea Regions to be organised by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in Kharkiv on June 1-2, 2017, is "The role of constitutional courts in interpreting the provisions of national constitutions in the context of the generally recognised principles and norms of international law and EU law, judgments of international courts", emphasized a judge.
Director of the Directorate of Human Rights of the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe Christos Giakoumopoulos described the cases concerning Ukraine, which are included in the schedule of the meetings of the Committee of Ministers in June and September 2017. He paid particular attention to recurring cases, which have the highest priority for the Committee of Ministers on Ukraine and the Department for the Execution of the European Court of Human Rights judgments.
Christos Giakoumopoulos elaborated on the cases in respect of Ukraine related to the lack of an independent and impartial investigation into deaths and ill-treatment in accordance with Articles 2, 3 of the Convention, cases on guarantees against arbitrary and unlawful detention in accordance with Article 5 of the Convention and cases relating to freedom of assembly in accordance with Article 11 of the Convention. He informed the judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine about the content of the obligations related to the general measures arising from the ECHR judgments in cases that raise the issue of constitutionality, which still require execution before the Committee of Ministers.
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe had positively noted the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine which was adopted in 2016 on advance notification concerning public services, religious rites, ceremonies and processions upon the constitutional petition of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the part which declared unconstitutional the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR "On the procedure of organising and conducting meetings, rallies, street manifestations and demonstrations in the USSR dated 1988, in particular, in the context of filling the legislative gap, noted Christos Giakoumopoulos.
The participants also discussed technical assistance measures that can be provided by the Council of Europe and the Directorate General of Human Rights to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine during the transitional period and held an open exchange of views on issues that could be considered as obstacles in the implementation of the ECHR judgements.
At the end of the meeting, the interlocutors thanked each other for the constructive meeting and expressed their hope for further fruitful cooperation.
