Access Way to God

Early last week saw the presentation of the book The European Human Rights Convention: Fundamental Principles, Practice of Application, and the Ukrainian Context, compiled by the Union of Ukrainian Lawyers and the British Center InterRights. The book is designed to help lawyers, prosecutors, judges, and everyone who is involved in defending human rights familiarize themselves with the principles of the European Convention and its application. According to the vice president of the Union of Ukrainian Lawyers and head of its counseling bureau, Olha Zhukovska, this book can help lawyers and judges “turn the Convention from a sleeping beauty into an effective source of human rights advocacy.”

“Although it has been seven years since Ukraine ratified the Convention, its introduction into the practice of Ukrainian justice has been very complex. Judges, prosecutors, and lawyers initially viewed the Convention as some exotic thing that could hardly help them in their daily affairs. Another reason behind the slow introduction of the Convention has been the fact that most Ukrainian jurists are unfamiliar with its content and have no access to the precedents on its application for linguistic reasons,” says Olha Zhukovska.

Lawyers believe the lack of knowledge of the Convention’s real potential is behind many of the unsuccessful attempts by Ukrainian citizens to appeal to the European Court. “Sometimes total unfamiliarity with the Convention causes euphoria, and people appeal to the European Court for any reason whatsoever. I have seen constitutional appeals in which the address of the Supreme Court of Ukraine was crossed out by hand and replaced with the European Court of Ukraine,” says Zhukovska. According to Oleksandr Tolochko, assistant professor at the Yaroslav the Wise National Legal Academy of Ukraine, when Ukraine ratified the Convention, Ukrainians viewed the European Court as if it were God Himself, and the Convention as an access way to God. On the other hand, euphoria often gives way to complete disillusionment.

While discussing ways to adapt Ukrainian laws to Europe’s, jurists are not forgetting about their domestic problems. The Union of Ukrainian Lawyers has addressed an open letter to Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, expressing concern over the recent statement by Justice Minister Roman Zvarych, who plans to introduce a system whereby every lawyer will be obliged to spend several days per month providing pro bono legal services to those who cannot afford to pay for them. The lawyers don’t deny that many citizens cannot exercise their right to free legal assistance, but they also wish to remind the government of their own rights. “Such intentions run counter to Article 43 of the Ukrainian Constitution,” their statement reads. The lawyers cite the low financial status of most citizens, which results in their low fees. “If you cut off the scanty funding from the budget that we receive for providing legal aid, this would put an end to the legal profession and the professional institution of defense in our country,” the lawyers write in their letter to the prime minister.