The Supreme Courts of Ukraine and Latvia Have Launched a Joint Project to Support the Capacity of the Supreme Court in the Context of European Integration

"Ukraine is purposefully moving to the European Union. Unfortunately, the process of European integration is taking place at a very tragic time - a time of war and suffering. Despite all the sacrifices, the Ukrainian people are united in their goal, in their European choice. In times like these, the support and experience of our partners is more important than ever. We are grateful for the support and sincerely believe that long-term friendly relations based on common values will continue to connect the Supreme Courts of Ukraine and Latvia,” said SC President Vsevolod Kniaziev during a meeting on the occasion of the opening of the project “Support for Strengthening the Capacity of the Supreme Court of Ukraine in the Context of European Integration”, organized by the Supreme Court of Latvia, the State Judicial Administration of Latvia and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia.

The SC President also thanked the Supreme Court of Latvia for humanitarian assistance, sincerity and responsiveness to the needs of the judicial system and Ukraine in general, and to the people of Latvia for their solidarity and support in the fight against Russian invaders.

"The Supreme Court of Latvia is our long-standing partner and ally. By starting a new common project, we achieve a new stage of cooperation,” Vsevolod Kniaziev emphasized.

The project relevance, according to the SC President, is reinforced by the fact that Ukraine received the status of a candidate for EU membership in June this year, and accession to the European Union requires further reforms in many public spheres of institutions, as well as the implementation of the Copenhagen criteria regarding the stability of institutions that guarantee democracy, the rule of law, ensuring human rights, respect for and protection of minorities rights.

Vsevolod Kniaziev informed that the project would address three key areas: the provision of humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian courts, expert support and a series of seminars on psychological rehabilitation.

 “The Supreme Court is ready for active leadership in matters of further improvement of the state of administration of justice in Ukraine and is interested in adapting case law in line with its adherence to EU law and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The experience of the Supreme Court of Latvia will be a significant support for us in the process of European integration in the field of justice,” said the SC President.

The President of the Criminal Cassation Court within the Supreme Court Stanislav Kravchenko pointed out that the courts of Ukraine faced challenges in the context of considering criminal proceedings on crimes against peace, the security of mankind and the international legal order.

He informed that to date more than 35,000 proceedings in this category of crimes had been registered in Ukraine. Every fact of aggression, destruction of infrastructure, death of civilians and ill-treatment of prisoners of war is recorded and carefully documented so that every perpetrator is brought to justice.

At the same time, national legislation, namely Articles 437-438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, does not cover the entire list of acts committed by the Russian military, which means that in practice there are difficulties with the qualification of such acts. Therefore, Ukrainian courts need expert support in this area.

The President of the Criminal Cassation Court within the Supreme Court also said that our state, at the highest level, declared its readiness to create a special mechanism for trial and pre-trial investigation of war crimes committed by Russian aggressors on the territory of Ukraine. Our country is a part of both the European and the international community, so the crimes committed by the invaders on the territory of Ukraine cannot be ignored by the entire international community. Therefore, joint efforts should be made to bring to justice the highest military and political leadership of the aggressor country.

Tetiana Antsupova, Judge of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, spoke about the organizational challenges in the work of the Supreme Court and the judiciary in the context of the full-scale war, and also said that at the beginning of the work of the Supreme Court, five working groups had been created to develop a strategy for the Court's activities.

In particular, the Supreme Court Strategic Development Working Group works on the improvement of all internal management processes. Now, in the context of the financial crisis of the judiciary, the Group is developing a new organizational structure of the Court.

The reorganization of the Supreme Court Staff, according to the judge, is aimed at simplifying its structure by consolidating the structural units with expanding their functionality, optimizing the number of employees in each unit, as well as saving and using the Court’s resources wisely.