The Issue of Protecting the Rights of Victims in Criminal Proceedings Related to Russian Aggression Has Currently Become Topical

The protection of the rights of victims and the establishment of additional criteria to ensure the rights of certain categories of victims: minors; victims of domestic violence are issues that have always been the subject of close attention of the Supreme Court. Today, in the context of a full-scale Russian invasion of the territory of Ukraine, "peaceful accents" in the protection of the rights of victims have changed.

This was stated by Stanislav Kravchenko, President of the Criminal Cassation Court within the Supreme Court, during the online conference "The specifics of victim-oriented approaches in war crimes trials".

The speaker said that in addition to reviewing criminal proceedings in cassation, the Criminal Cassation Court within the Supreme Court ensured the unity and consistency of case law through the mechanisms provided for by law.

It is important for the Supreme Court to consider all criminal proceedings, at the same time, today the great efforts of the Court are aimed at organizing work on issues related to three categories of criminal proceedings: regarding crimes related to the armed aggression of the Russian Federation; on crimes against the foundations of the national security of Ukraine (high treason, collaboration activities) and on military criminal offences.

The President of the Criminal Cassation Court within the Supreme Court said that during the period of a full-scale Russian invasion of the territory of Ukraine, almost 26 thousand crimes of aggression and war crimes were registered, of which more than 24 thousand were in violation of the laws and customs of war (Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Stanislav Kravchenko added that the courts had always paid attention to the protection of the rights of all participants in criminal proceedings. Special emphasis is usually placed on the protection of the rights of the accused. Even the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights mainly concern persons who were held criminally liable. Few individual cases dealt with by the ECtHR touched upon the failure to ensure proper protection of the rights of victims.

Today, said the President of the Criminal Cassation Court within the Supreme Court, everyone living in Ukraine feels victimized, for there is not a single region where air alarms do not sound, from where citizens do not go to war. Due to the armed aggression of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, many people have died, received serious injuries and have been left homeless.

Therefore, the issues of protecting the rights of victims, the specifics of the consideration of criminal proceedings related to the full-scale Russian invasion of the territory of Ukraine, are very relevant.

Stanislav Kravchenko thanked the EU Pravo-Justice Project for organizing an important online conference and expressed his belief that the event would be useful for the legal community.