Delegation of the Council of Europe paid a visit
to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine
On December 10, 2019 a working meeting with a delegation of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the ECHR, Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe took place at the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine was represented by the Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Oleksandr Tupytskyi, the judges of the Court Viktor Horodovenko, Viktor Kolisnyk, Oleh Pervomaiskyi, Petro Filiuk, Halyna Yurovska, the Head of the Secretariat of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Yaroslav Vasylkevych; the Council of Europe was represented by the Head (a.i.) of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the ECHR, Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law Fredrik Sundberg, and the Head of the Division of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the ECHR, Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law Pavlo Pushkar.
During the meeting the interlocutors discussed, in particular, the role of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in ensuring respect for human rights (through the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights) and the role of an individual constitutional complaint in the protection of human rights.
The Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Oleksandr Tupytskyi welcomed the guests and noted the importance of the issues raised for discussion. He briefly informed the guests about the cases pending the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and expressed his hope for improvement of the situation regarding the execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.
The Chairman and the judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine focused on the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, in which legal positions were formulated taking into account the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. These decisions protected, in particular, the right of the individual to freedom of personal inviolability. The Constitutional Court of Ukraine took into account the ECHR's position on Article 5 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (judgments in the cases McKay v. United Kingdom, Storck v Germany, Stanev v. Bulgaria, Kharchenko v. Ukraine, Shishkov v. Bulgaria, etc.), Articles 2, 3 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (judgments in the cases Salakhov and Islyamova v. Ukraine, Mikhalkova and Others v. Ukraine), requirements to be observed during the lawful detention of persons of unsound mind (judgment in the case of Winterwerp v The Netherlands), the need for judicial nature of the detention procedure (judgment in the case of Gorshkov against Ukraine).
Fredrik Sundberg and Pavlo Pushkar informed the Ukrainian side of the results of the Committee of Ministers’ review on the status of execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights by Ukraine, in particular in the case of Oleksandr Volkov v. Ukraine concerning independence of the judiciary, discipline and career of judges.
In the course of the conversation, the execution of judgments on land moratorium (cases Zelenchuk and Tsytsyura v. Ukraine), excessive length of proceedings (Merit and Svitlana Naumenko v. Ukraine) and the case of Shvydka v. Ukraine were discussed.
At the end of the event, the parties thanked each other for an informative and meaningful meeting and expressed their hope for further fruitful cooperation.
