September 15-16, 2022

Acting Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Serhiy Holovaty, judges of the Court, Oksana Hryshchuk and Galyna Yurovska, are participating in the International Conference “Sustainability as a Constitutional Value: Future Challenge”, which is being held in the city of Riga (Republic of Latvia).

The conference includes three panel discussions during the two-day event (September 15-16).

During the first discussion “Sustainability of democracy: how to prevent threats to democracy in a democratic way?” on September 15 Acting Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Serhiy Holovaty, was one of the key speakers of the conference and delivered a report “Preventing Threats to Democracy: Ukraine’s Twists and Turns”.

Video and full text of Serhiy Holovaty's speech.

Within the framework of the respective panel discussion, the participants discussed the role of constitutional courts in ensuring a balance between the protection of fundamental rights (in a broader sense, not only freedom of expression but also, for example, the right to vote) and the need to prevent (mitigate) various threats to democracy (such as false information and the public being misled).

The second panel discussion of the conference was devoted to the topic “Sustainability of fundamental rights: adapting fundamental rights to the age of modern technology.”

Its participants discussed the need to conceptualise new fundamental rights in the era of modern technologies, for example, the right to access the Internet, the right to privacy, protection of personal data, freedom of expression, etc.

On the first day of the International Conference, its participants were welcomed by Egils Levits, President of the Republic of Latvia. President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia Aldis Laviņš, Judge of the European Court of Human Rights Pauline Koskelo, Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany Heinrich Amadeus Wolff, Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia Artūrs Kučs, Judge of the Court of Justice of the European Union Ineta Ziemele, Vice-President of the Venice Commission Herdis Kjerulf Thorgeirsdóttir, Deputy President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia Irēna Kucina delivered their reports.

On Friday, September 16, during the final discussion on the topic “Environmental sustainability: a political choice or a matter of fundamental rights?”, the participants discussed, in particular, the role of courts in ensuring environmental sustainability and the limits of their powers in solving this category of cases. Standardisation of the right to a safe environment was also debated.

Dineke de Goot, President of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, Helen Keller, Vice President of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Fabien Raynaud, Deputy President of the Report of Studies Section of the Council of State of France, Anita Rodiņa, Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia, as well as other judges of the European constitutional courts delivered their reports.

The International Conference “Sustainability as a Constitutional Value: Future Challenges” ended with the closing speeches of Sanita Osipova, Professor at the Department of Theory and History of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Latvia and Aldis Laviņš, President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia.

Broadcast is available at: https://www.youtube.com