Ukrainians most often apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) with complaints about illegal detention. This was reported to UNN by Hanna Yudkivska, partner of EQUITY Law Firm, judge of the European Court of Human Rights (2010-2022), Vice-Chair of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Vice-President of the European Community of International Law.
I was a judge from Ukraine at the ECHR for 12 years. Complaints from our citizens came in principle under all articles of the European Convention, but of course there were such champions among the articles of the Convention as Article 5 - unlawful detention - unfortunately, the investigating authorities abuse it. And the courts, accordingly, abuse the choice of a preventive measure in the form of detention. The European Court has a so-called well established case law procedure - these are the cases that are communicated in groups, because these are the same violations that the European Court has mentioned in the context of Ukraine many times
According to her, there are a lot of complaints about violations of the right to a fair trial, both in criminal and civil proceedings.
"There are many complaints about violations of Article 1 of the Protocol on the right to property... Article 8 of the Convention is the right to respect for private life. The number of complaints has decreased - this is very positive - regarding Article 3, torture is not human treatment. This is not to say that there are none at all, but it is great that their number has significantly decreased. This applies to torture as such - by investigative bodies, there are almost no such complaints, and to the conditions of detention. The number of complaints about the duration of the trial has decreased," Yudkivska noted.
She noted that the situation with arbitrary detention and illegal detention is a champion.
"But what seems to be on the surface today - well, if we put the situation related to the war, the situation that has been going on since 2014, if we do not talk about it, about the consequences of hostilities, then the situation with arbitrary detention and illegal detention is the champion," Yudkivska said.
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