Supervising the implementation of Ukrainian ECtHR judgments following the Russian invasion
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The Russian invasion of Ukraine has radically impacted the capacity of the authorities and civil society to continue work on European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR”) judgment implementation - and has naturally changed the focus of human rights work in the country.
Nevertheless, since the beginning of the conflict work on the implementation of ECtHR judgments has continued in some ways. This piece sets out our understanding of the current approach of the Ukrainian government and the Council of Europe. The most important points are as follows:
Consideration of Ukrainian cases in the quarterly Committee of Ministers Human Rights Meetings (CM/DH) has been postponed: during the March CM/DH meeting, the Committee of Ministers did not debate or issue decisions on any of the Ukrainian cases. Furthermore, no Ukrainian cases have been listed for debate in the June CM/DH meeting. This means that the earliest that Ukrainian cases will be debated in CM/DH again is in September 2022.
Cases under standard procedure continue to be processed: the Ukrainian government has continued to submit Action Plans and Action Reports in many cases. We understand that these communications will continue to be analysed by the Council of Europe – and that Final Resolutions to close cases may therefore be proposed to the Committee of Ministers for adoption if it is found that all necessary measures have been taken.
The ongoing limited engagement of the Ukrainian government has been confirmed by a government communication published today, which has been submitted to the Council of Europe. Through this communication, the government reiterated its commitments under Article 46 of the Convention, and informed the Committee of Ministers that:
Due to the imposition of martial law, there has been a suspension of sharing information with governmental bodies (including the Office of the Agent) on issues which do not relate to martial law. This also includes information regarding the full implementation of the Court’s judgments. This will only be resumed after the end of martial law.
Communications to the Court have been suspended temporarily due to the impossibility for the Government (and applicants) to submit complete observations in response. The government has informed the Court and notified the Secretary General of the derogation under Article 15 of the Convention from some of its’ obligations due to necessity given the ongoing war.
The Government Agent continues work on the execution of the Court’s judgments “where possible” and may submit action plans and reports in existing cases where the information is available without the need for extensive input for public authorities or where no complex measures are required.
At the current time, it is impossible to work on cases which concern complex, systemic or structural problems and are being examined in the enhanced procedure, or where there is a need for legislative changes or wide-ranging general measures. They request the Committee to consider extending the deadlines for submissions in these cases until martial law has been repealed.
The Government Agent requested the Council of Europe to continue assessment of Action plans and Reports and to consider case closure in a limited number of cases in which Action Reports have been submitted, listed in an Annex available here.
The European Implementation Network has informed its Ukrainian members and partners of the Ukrainian government’s continued engagement in the implementation monitoring process, as well as the ongoing processing of cases by the Council of Europe. We have received limited responses so far, but a small number of messages indicate no objections from civil society to the approach set out above. Indeed, since the start of the conflict some Rule 9 submissions have already been submitted from Ukrainian NGOs and we expect more in future.
EIN continues to monitor the situation in regard to Ukraine and will inform colleagues of developments. We commend the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people at this time.