Activity Details (ID# 1977)

Activity Synopsis

Target group: Ukrainian judges, lawyers and journalists

The main objectives of the seminar were to present an overview of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights concerning Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights; to discuss Ukrainian Courts’ practice in cases concerning the mass media (with special regard to defamation, insult and criticism of public figures), to present the relevant European and Ukrainian practice concerning access to information, the protection of sources, state secrecy and whistle-blowing, to raise awareness about the implementation of Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights and case law on this Article, to present concrete examples from current practice and prepare a case-study in the workshop with the participants of the seminar and to define the perspectives for the Ukrainian judges’ implementation of European standards in their practice.
 

The participants of the seminar received relevant information and documents on the implementation of the ECHR, in particular, Ukrainian versions of the ECHR, case law of the European Court of Human Rights on Article 10 of the Convention, a collection of recent decisions of the European Court concerning Article 10, an analysis of Ukrainian legislation in the context of the implementation of the ECHR.

Three role games were conducted, two using foreign examples, one with Ukrainian material. The games demonstrated that the judges had mastered the main principles and approaches of the European Court to the violations of Article 10 of the Convention.

The participants in this seminar Lviv were already aware about the subject of the seminar since many of the regional judges had already participated in similar seminars.

One local TV channel and local radio covered the seminar.

According to the results of the questionnaire which was distributed at the end of the seminar, the participants considered that this seminar was useful and necessary and evaluated its level as high.

The premises where seminar took place (conference hall of the hotel) was the only bad point, as it was rather big, which created certain barriers in communication between experts and participants.
 

The judges pointed out the necessity of the implementation of the ECHR in the decisions of the Supreme Court and the Plenums of the Supreme Court, which is to a certain extent directive in the activity of the Ukrainian judges.

Some of the judges who expressed an understanding and interest in the ECHR could be invited to participate in future next training sessions or to more basic training programs.


 

Judges from the district (local) and appeal courts from 4 regions of Ukraine (Lviv, Volynska oblast, Chmelnytskyi, Rivne), lawyers dealing with cases related to freedom of expression, journalists.

 

Mr Gerard Van den Dungen, Vice-President, Regional Court of Zwolle (Netherlands)
Mr Ornulf Rohnebeak, Legal Adviser, Royal Ministry of Justice and the Police (Norway)
 

Mr Olexander Pavichenko, Director of the Information Office of the Council of Europe, Co-ordinator of the Action Plan for the media in Ukraine