Ukrainians complain about tortures to the European Court

Last year ten colleagues, including me, were lucky to win the contest of Helsinki foundation for human rights (Poland) and start Advanced course on human rights. After three sessions of lectures, training workshops, case studies, tests, complicated "students' projects" finally in October of this year we had a chance to observe the work of the Council of Europe, European Court in Strasbourg and International criminal court in Hague.

The Judge of European Court from Ukraine Mr. Volodymyr Butkevych kindly agreed for an exlusive interview for the readers of "Vhory" newspaper.

• Volodymyr Hryhorovych, how does Ukrainian judicial system look in the context of the European Convention from the point of view of the judge from European Court?
• It's a pity, but Ukraine still does not have the official translation of the European Convention that would be authentic to the English and French versions of this document. The second version of this translation, which was created after ratification of this Convention by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, was sent to the European Court - it is better than the previous one, but still it is not authentic. But as far as I know it was not widely published and therefore not all citizens had a chance to read it. It might be reason why people file lawsuits to the European court for violation of rights that are not described in the Convention.
• How do they solve such problem in other countries?

• In Russia they created an entire commission of qualified professionals, they had worked on the translation for about half a year, adjusted every single word and term, and now they have official text of the Convention. Russia also sends its judges for internships to the European Court every now and then. All judges of the Supreme Court and Constitutional court had visited us. Judges from Armenia, Georgia also have their internships all the time in Strasbourg. Plus, Council of Europe sponsors such events. And Ukrainian judges only now started thinking about this.
• What do you think is the most important thing that our judges can learn here?
• Here our judges will see that only being independent they can realize their professional skills. Dependent judge will never become professional.
• Haven't you felt pressure from the side of Ukrainian government?
• When I started working here, deputies of Verkhovna Rada kept writing letters to me asking to solve some cases in a certain way. Finally, I collected their letters and sent them to the Verkhovna Rada and explained that such letters are a rude intrusion to the competence of the Court and are prohibited by the Ukrainian legislation. Executive branch also tried to advise how to solve certain cases, and accused me of not being patriotic, saying that I was working against Ukraine. Then judges start making different decisions. But for this one has to find another candidate for the judge. I can not put State's priority over the priority of citizens.
• What do Ukrainians complain about the most?
• The most amount of complaints is about violation of article 3 of the Convention: tortures and inhumane behavior, that law-enforcing bodies use during investigation and due process.
• And how does Ukraine explain it to the European Court?
• The State tries to assure that it is lies. But the more it tries to persuade, the more contradictions we find in the arguments that it presents. Sometimes I wittingly prolong the case to get the maximum information from the State. Then I compare the materials and easily see the false arguments. Here is a recent example: the defendant complains that police tortured him and pressed him to admit the crime he hadn't committed. The State reports that there were no tortures, and the defendant admitted the crime for no reason and them refused from his own words. To clarify certain moments the Court send additional questions to the State. Then the Court compared the dates in the answers and it turned out that the defendant refused from his testimony before he admitted of being guilty. In this case the representatives on the higher level did not check the materials.
• What else do our citizens complain about?
• Intrusion of the government to their personal life. Violation of their right to access information.
• And how does the State react when its guilt is obvious?
• It immediately tries to negotiate the conflict. For example: Kaisin vs. Ukraine. Miners-pensioners received their delayed salaries plus reimbursement for moral damage. They also wanted to get "inflation percent" but the Court did not find any legal grounds for such demand. All in all miners agreed for peaceful settlement. It is crucially important for Ukraine now not to create bag image because it offers peaceful settlement everywhere.
• My be someone at home "pressed" on the plaintiffs and they accepted the State's conditions?
• If the plaintiff reports pressure from the party of the State, the Court can send special mission to clarify facts and learn the situation. Such mission has just come back from Ukraine - they were checking the situation at the prison where the plaintiff was kept.
• What else do Ukrainians complain about?
• Complaints about unfulfilled court verdicts are second after the complaints about tortures. Third are delays in salary payments, which is the violation of article 1 of the protocol 1 of the Convention that covers economic rights. The court sees salary as a property, which was not returned to its owner. We frequently receive complaints on intrusion of the State into personal life, free access to information
• How often do you participate in the court hearings in lawsuits to Ukraine?
• Very seldom. One a year they "shake" Committees of the European Court so that judges would not get used to similar cases and learn new court systems. Recently I participated in cases to Italy, Great Britain and Poland. Over the three years I heard 1500 cases. To make speeches on 6 cases a week is a regular practice for a judge of the European Court.
• You have to read a lot of court verdicts from different countries and Ukraine. Is there a difference?
• The first few years after the Convention had been ratified lawsuits exposed complete incompetence of Ukrainian judges. Over these past three years I observed significant leap forward: lawsuits that come from Ukraine do not differ from those coming from other European Countries. Our judges are more laconic than English judges, who turn the art if argumentation into jewelry sophistication and perfection. But to my disappointment Ukrainian judges still rarely consult with the European Convention on human rights.