Study on Assessing the Capacity of Our National Justice System to Deal with Grave International Crimes and the Importance of Other Mechanisms for Ukraine (update)

About

The project aimed to update research on the assessment of the capacity of Ukraine's national justice system to deal with the grave international crimes and the value of other mechanisms, and to complement existing efforts to bring accountability for international crimes in Ukraine by introducing international standards and relevant practices into ongoing justice-related processes, in particular at the pre-trial investigation stage, and by representing victims through strategic litigation.

Key results

• An updated version of the study on the assessment of the capacity of the national justice system of Ukraine to deal with grave international crimes and the importance of other mechanisms was prepared in Ukrainian and English, and the texts were disseminated on the organisation's resources;
• Analysed legislative amendments to the CCU, the CPU, legislation on the protection of victims and witnesses, as well as other acts related to the functioning of the justice system in Ukraine, the findings of which were included in the text of the study;
• Analysis and monitoring of national trials in cases of grave international crimes to address the problematic issues identified when planning the update of the study (practical approaches of courts to the assessment of information from open sources as evidence in criminal proceedings; peculiarities of criminal proceedings in the absence of suspects/accused in absentia), the results of which were included in the updated text of the study;
• Presentation of the updated text of the study with a discussion of key trends in the field of justice for Ukraine at the national and international levels.