Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine Iryna Mudra and Ukrainian Commissioner for Human Rights Marharyta Sokorenko participated in the 1475th (DH) meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

“I have the honor to represent the Government of Ukraine today at the meeting. It is a hard assignment to promote and protect human rights in Ukraine during the full-scale war of aggression by the russian federation. However, let me assure you that Ukrainian authorities continue to work on the execution of the Court’s judgments against Ukraine in extremely difficult circumstances, demonstrating commitment to the Convention system,” said Iryna Mudra, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine. Furthermore, she expressed sincere gratitude on behalf of the Government of Ukraine to the Committee of Ministers for constant support of Ukrainian authorities. She also focused on addressing the issue of non-enforcement of judicial decisions, which is a priority task for the Ukrainian side and particularly for the Ministry of Justice. “Now the Government is implementing reforms both in national legislation and in administrative practice as a member of the Council of Europe and within the EU accession process,” she added.

Regarding the group of cases “Zhovner v. Ukraine”, “Yuriy Nikolayevich Ivanov v. Ukraine”, “Burmych and Others v. Ukraine” which concerns the violation of the rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights in connection with the problem of non-enforcement of the judicial decisions or their delayed implementation by national courts, for which the state bears responsibility, Iryna Mudra noted that the problem indicated by the Court in Burmych\Ivanov\Zhovner group of cases was the complex systemic and structural problem.

“We understand that solving of this problem is very complex, demanding and long-term. Especially in the situation of continuing russian war and measures made by the State with the adoption of the martial law,” Iryna Mudra added.

During the meeting, the revised “National Strategy for addressing the problem of non-execution of judgments, when debtors are a state body or state enterprise, institution, organisation, for the period up to 2022” was presented. The updated Action Plan was agreed with the Office of the President of Ukraine and has been submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for adoption.

“The Government understands that the problem will not be solved in a year or two and requires a long-term strategy. And we hope that the Council of Europe will continue its support and assistance to Ukraine in this regard, including providing practical recommendations,” Iryna Mudra said.

The Ukrainian Commissioner for Human Rights Marharyta Sokorenko informed the delegates about the extensive efforts recently made and measures planned to be implemented by the Government of Ukraine to address the problem of non-enforcement of the judicial decisions or their delayed implementation. “Having defined financial, legislative, institutional reasons of the problem, the Action Plan of 2021, adopted for implementation of the Strategy, provided for a particular tasks to solve the problem,” she said. However, she noted that Action Plan of 2021 did not cover the key problems, that was also criticized by the Committee. “Further, in 2022 Ukraine faced the russian war of aggression and the efforts of the authorities were refocused from the Action Plan to tasks related to national security. Under such circumstances, given the limited resources and the introduction of martial law, it became necessary to revise the 2021 Action Plan,” Marharyta Sokorenko said.

The updated Action Plan is focused on 4 keys areas:

1) the inventory and calculation of all existing debts in order to define total amount and its payment;

2) review of current social legislation and introduction of a new Social Code;

3) development of additional mechanisms for the execution of court decisions against enterprises under moratoriums;

4) introduction of effective and efficient judicial control over the execution of court decisions.

“In conclusion, I would like to assure that despite all the difficulties caused by the russian aggression against Ukraine and scale of the problem at hand the Government stands for the full implementation of this group of cases and we will continue to undertake all possible steps to achieve the progress,” Marharyta Sokorenko said.