Activity Details (ID# 5231)

Activity Synopsis

The objective of the seminar was to present to judges and prosecutors from the Rivno region the general principles developed by the European Court of Human Rights concerning Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its application as regards defamation, insult, incitement to hatred, access to information, protection of sources, state secrecy and whistle-blowing. Case studies on defamation, insult of public figures, privacy and protection of sources were discussed with the participants.

 

The seminar was very well organised. Various documents about the Council of Europe in general, the European Court of Human Rights and freedom of expression were distributed to the participants (Council of Europe - 800 million Europeans, European Court of Human Rights - organisation, proceeding and rules, Short Guide to the ECHR, Case law concerning Article 10 of the ECHR, European standards concerning free elections, European standards concerning freedom of expression).
The Council of Europe experts gave an interview to local radio stations.

The participants had already attended seminars on the European Convention on Human Rights (this seminar was the first with international experts) but their knowledge about the ECHR in general and especially Article 10 was very limited. This was the reason for their relatively passive participation during the discussions. The Council of Europe experts were excellent and made very interesting presentations. During the role-playing exercises, the experts tried to involve the participants in the discussion. They asked very simple questions about the hypothetical cases presented in order to help them to better understand Article 10 and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, but the participants had difficulty even putting themselves in a hypothetical situation and forgetting their customary way of thinking.

 

In general, the seminar could be considered a success. An evaluation questionnaire was distributed to the participants at the end of the seminar. The general conclusion of the participants was that Article 10 and the ECHR in general need to be concretely applied and that existing protection of human rights in general, and freedom of expression and information in particular, was insufficient. On the other hand, their lack of experience concerning the implementation of the case law of the ECHR has led them to request further instructions from the Ukrainian authorities.

All participants expressed a wish to continue this kind of activity and to participate in additional seminars on other articles of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Another regional seminar for judges and prosecutors will take place in Chernigiv on 17-18 June 2003 on the same topic.

 

Judges from the Rivno region

 

Ms Ingrid Blaauw, Judge, Vice-President of the Regional Court of Zwolle (the Netherlands)
Mr Gavin Millar, QC, Barrister, Doughty Street Chambers, London (United Kingdom Ms Valeria Lutkovska, Government Agent of Ukraine before the European Court of Human Rights
Mr Yuriy Zaicev, Editor in Chief of ''Case law of the European Court of Human Rights''
 

Ms Lejla Dervisagic, Media Division, Directorate General of Human Rights