Visit of the judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine
to the institutions of the Council of Europe
July 9-10, 2019, Strasbourg, France, the judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Mykhailo Hultai and Oleh Pervomaiskyi took part in the event “Standards of the Council of Europe on Internal Displacement”, organised for the representatives of the judiciary, including the displaced courts of Ukraine and representatives of the National School of Judges of Ukraine (hereinafter - “NSCU”).
Special Advisor to Council of Europe's Secretary General for Ukraine, Regis Brillat, the Secretary of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court Vsevolod Kniazev and the Vice-Rector of the NSCU Natalia Shuklina welcomed the participants.
Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Mykhailo Hultai welcomed the participants of the event on behalf of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and noted that the problem of internally displaced persons is acute for Ukraine and the Constitutional Court of Ukraine must fulfill its main task - to protect the constitutional rights of citizens.
Mykhailo Hultai emphasised that for Ukraine the issue of protecting the rights of internally displaced persons is of particular importance and urgency, which is intensified by the scale of migration and the imperfection of normative regulation. The issue of the legal status of the IDPs is not only an internal problem of the state itself, it is also the focus of the international community, since it creates real threats to human rights, protection of life and health, the inviolability and security of forced migrants.
During the meetings held at the institutions of the Council of Europe, the issues of the protection of the rights of internally displaced persons were discussed, the European standards of protecting the rights of IDPs, the main challenges and recommendations of the Council of Europe concerning the situation in Ukraine were analysed.
On the first day of the visit, the members of the delegation discussed the role and the functions of the European Court of Human Rights, the enforcement of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, and the protection of internally displaced persons in accordance with the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Within the framework of the event, members of the delegation held a meeting with Hanna Yudkivska, judge of the 
European Court of Human Rights in respect of Ukraine, during which the case law of the European Court of Human Rights was discussed.
The second day of the visit commenced with the attendance of the hearing of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in “Big Brother Watch and others v. the United Kingdom (Nos. 58170/13, 62322/14 and 24960/15)” by the delegation.
The participants also reviewed the experience of Georgia and the Balkans on internal displacement, ongoing reforms of the European Court of Human Rights and the Human Rights Monitoring Board, discussed the judicial reform in Ukraine and the role of the Consultative Council of European Judges in ensuring the consistent jurisprudence - CCJE Opinion No. 20.
