Supreme Court judges discuss priority areas of international cooperation within the OSCE Support Programme for Ukraine

Larysa Rohach, President of the Commercial Cassation Court within the Supreme Court, and judges of the CommCC within the Supreme Court Ihor Benedysiuk, Volodymyr Pohrebniak, Olha Krolevets and Yurii Chumak held a working meeting with Pierre Bossan, Operations Manager of the OSCE Support Programme for Ukraine, Senior Project Associate of the Programme Oleksandr Vodiannikov, and OSCE Manager of the OSCE Project ‘Support to the Supreme Court and Higher Courts in Implementing Judicial Reform and Ensuring Access to Justice in Times of War’ Olha Kravchenko as part of their cooperation.

The participants of the meeting discussed, in particular, the institutional capacity of the Commercial Cassation Court as a component of the Supreme Court to administer justice based on the rule of law and human rights, and to ensure the unity of judicial practice in the face of a full-scale invasion.

Larysa Rohach noted that Russia's military aggression is not a reason to lower the existing standards of justice, although it does create new challenges for the Ukrainian judicial system, which makes international support extremely important. In this regard, the President of the CommCC within the Supreme Court noted the effective cooperation of the Supreme Court with the OSCE within the framework of international technical assistance projects.

In addition, the meeting discussed the importance of identifying ways and directions for further cooperation, given that the readiness of judges to apply European Union law in practice is a necessary component to ensure the effectiveness of justice in resolving disputes within the competence of commercial courts, in particular disputes related to the protection of investors' rights and interests.

In conclusion, Pierre Bossan expressed his support for the outlined areas of cooperation, noting that strengthening democratic institutions in Ukraine is one of the priorities of the OSCE in Ukraine.