Judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Stanislav Shevchuk and Serghii Vdovichenko met with the representatives of the Council of Europe

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Judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Stanislav Shevchuk and Serghii Vdovichenko met with the representatives of the Council of Europe

 

 

         On April 27, 2015 judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Stanislav Shevchuk, Chairman of the Standing Commission of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on International Relations, and Serghii Vdovichenko met with the representatives of the Council of Europe in the framework of realization of the provisions of the Council of Europe Project "Support to reform the judicial responsibility in Ukraine". The meeting was attended by Head of the Justice and Legal Cooperation Department of the Council of Europe, Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law Hanne Juncher and Project Manager "Support to reform the judicial responsibility inUkraine" Andrii Kavakin.

         The interlocutors discussed the number of issues concerning the constitutional reform inUkraine, independence and effectiveness of the judiciary and implementation of the Courts’ decisions, ways of increasing the level of public confidence in justice and the necessity of introduction of the constitutional complaint.

         Stanislav Shevchuk noted that the sole body of the constitutional jurisdiction of Ukraine is interested in cooperation with the Council of Europe and has prepared some proposals to enlist the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine for the period of 2015-2017. “Judicial protection of democracy and human rights is of great importance. So we need to contact with the Council of Europe and we pay much attention to this cooperation”, –  underlined the judge.

         Chairman of the Standing Commission of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on International Relations has also stressed on the introduction of the institute of the constitutional complaint in Ukraine as it is the important mechanism for the protection of the constitutional rights and freedoms of a person and the citizen. He noticed that it is especially important to bring the Constitution of Ukraine to the average Ukrainian citizen so that everyone could know that his or her rights will be protected in our country.

         In his turn judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Serghii Vdovichenko added that there should be held an explanation procedure for the citizens before the introduction of the constitutional complaint. “We support the introduction of the constitutional complaint and consider that it is necessary to examine issues that could arise due to this”, – mentioned judge.

         Serghii Vdovichenko paid attention on some aspects of implementation of the justice by the courts of general jurisdiction. “Unfortunately courts of general jurisdiction mostly take the positivist position”. Judge emphasized that it is important to change approaches in resolving disputes by courts of general jurisdiction conceptually in order to use the provisions of the Constitution more widely as well as the rule of law, especially when the formal application of the law may provide an unfair settlement of the dispute.

         Head of the Justice and Legal Cooperation Department of the Council of Europe, Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law Hanne Juncher mentioned about the seriousness of approach to the meeting from the side of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. She added that the establishment of the effective filtration system of the constitutional complaint would serve for the qualitative protection of the constitutional rights and freedoms and proposed to involve experts from other countries where they had already faced that issue.

         At the end of the meeting Stanislav Shevchuk expressed hope for the further fruitful cooperation and successful realization of all mutual purposes.