Activity Details (ID# 6904)

Activity Synopsis

The objective of the seminar was to provide Ukrainian prosecutors with appropriate information on 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, privacy, protection of sources, state secrecy and whistle-blowing, as well as general information about the Court, its procedures and admissibility rules. 

The seminar participants were prosecutors from Kyiv and the regions as well as members of the Prosecutor’s Academy of Ukraine.

Many of the Council of Europe documents concerning Article 10 and the Convention in general were distributed to the participants as well as newly translated and published compilation of five recent judgements of the European Court of Human Rights.

Despite the fact that most participants had not participated before in seminars on Article 10 of the ECHR and had a limited knowledge of its principles, they were very active from the beginning of the seminar. They stressed the importance of freedom of expression in a democratic society and the importance of the application of European standards in their country. They also said that they are aware that formerly freedom of expression was not particularly respected in Ukraine and that there were a large number of missing journalists (in total 40 unresolved cases).

During the discussion the participants put questions about the protection of individuals subject to defamation by journalists, protection of sources and whistle-blowing. They wanted to know about the practice of the Court and other European countries in relation to these questions.

It was very good to have national and Council of Europe experts who gave different point of view.

During the role-playing exercises they were very active and showed that they had assimilated the theory of Article 10 principles.


 

The general conclusion was that the participants thought that the seminar was very useful for their professional education. They stressed that the Ukrainian legislation concerning Article 10 of the ECHR is mostly in compliance with European standards and that they should do more for its application. This kind of seminar is a good way of becoming familiar with the practice of the European Court of Human Rights and other European countries.

They expressed their wish to have seminars on the same topic together with representatives of the mass media. They also expressed their wish to have seminars on Articles 9, 13 and 17 of the ECHR, as well as seminars on the problems of the execution of the Court’s decisions by Ukrainian authorities.
 

Prosecutors from Kyiv and Ukrainian regions, members of the Prosecutors Academy of Ukraine

 

Ms Valeria Lutkovska, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine and Government Agent of Ukraine before the European Court of Human Rights
Ms Natalia Petrova, Senior Media Law expert (Top Media - Ukraine)
Mr Frédéric Gras, Barrister (France)
Mr Jaqcues Louvier, Director, Sub-Directorate for the Development of the press, Office of the Prime-Minister of France
 

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