Activity Details (ID# 7303)

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 on Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights, to discuss the practice of Ukrainian Courts in the 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 with 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 concerning 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 on the Article 10, analyze of the Ukrainian legislation in the context of the ECHR implementation.

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

Four TV-channels, local and regional mass media as well as one central edition (Holos Ukrainy newspaper) covered the Seminar.

The workshops in Ivano-Frankivsk were characterised by the high involvement of the participants. The discussions were always professional, and what is the most important, based on the norms of the ECHR, which was new many of the participants.

The questionnaire distributed to the participants at the end of the seminar demonstrated the high esteem for the seminar and the topicality and timeliness of this activity.
 

The judges demonstrated their understanding of the rules of the implementation of both the ECHR and case law of the ECHR. Workshops within the framework of the seminar were very useful.

Undoubtedly, it is necessary to train certain of the judges in more specialised seminars and to enquire about the judges’ participation in future training activities.
 

Judges from the district (local) and appeal courts from 4 regions of Ukraine (Ivano-Frankivsk, Zakarpatska region, Chernivtsy, Ternopil), 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