Ukraine ranks 4th among worst performers of ECHR decisions

Thursday, March 31, 2016 - 12:40 (EEST) Section: Latest news

Ukraine became the fourth in the list of countries, which complied worst with the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2015, according to the 9th Annual Report of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe published on Wednesday.
In particular, the rating of the countries, where the highest number of ECHR judgments had been registered and had to be implemented by the end of 2015, was headed by Italy (2,421 decisions), the second was Turkey (1,591 decisions), the third was Russia (1,549 decisions.), the fourth was Ukraine (1,052 decisions, representing 10% of all cases reviewed, and remained almost unchanged in comparison with 2014), and the fifth was Romania (652 decisions), reads the report.
The largest category of cases that are under enhanced supervision of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe includes matters relating to the security forces (17%), poor conditions (13%), excessive length of judicial proceedings (9%), and arbitrary detention (9%).

The report also stated that Ukraine is the second state after the Russian Federation with the highest proportion of cases that are under enhanced surveillance, reflecting the structural and complex problems. Thus, 15% of all cases, which are under the strict control, relate to Ukraine. Turkey follows Ukraine with 10%.

Regarding the payment of fair compensation in Ukraine, the report says that Kyiv did it in due time in 23 cases, which is an improvement, because in 2014, it was done only in five cases. Payment is still pending into a total of 168 decisions , of which in 135 cases, a non-payment period exceeds deadline for more than six months.
The total amount that Ukraine has to pay according to the decisions of the ECHR in 2015 is EUR 0.97 million, which is a significantly lower sum than it was in 2014: EUR 7.7 million.
The list concerning Ukraine includes cases related to detention conditions and health care issues, serious systemic problems associated with the functioning of Ukrainian judicial system (as an example, the case of Alexander Volkov vs. Ukraine), shortcomings in the law and practice governing the right to freedom of assembly, prolonged non-enforcement of decisions by local courts against the state or state-owned enterprises, and the lack of effective legal remedies.
Among the main achievements and the reforms that have been made in Ukraine since 1998 are legal certainty, a fair trial and freedom of expression.