Support to National Stakeholders in Enhancing Accessibility of Constitutional Justice

International seminar, organized by the OSCE and the Constitutional Court provides an opportunity for legal professionals to debate ways of protecting human rights through constitutional justice. 27 June 2018

(Yehor Zhuchenko/OSCE) Photo details

Description

Constitutional justice is a key safeguard in the separation of powers. In times of crisis, it is of special importance to ensure democratic institutions and procedures are functioning properly, and human rights are protected. Previously, the OSCE supported a number of reforms that strengthened the independence and effectiveness of Ukraine’s Constitutional Court, in line with international standards. One recent innovation, the constitutional complaint mechanism, opened way for citizens to seek justice in the Court if other tools fail to protect their rights.

This project aims to support the Court and other stakeholders, including human rights defenders, legal practitioners, and scholars, in applying international best practice in the review of constitutional appeals. Assistance is provided in making the Court’s procedures more efficient and accessible to those who need it. For this, the Secretariat of the Court receives assistance to improve its capacity to process the increased number of incoming cases. These efforts include advice on improvements in processing constitutional complaints and constitutional submissions, the swift development of case-files, and support to judges-rapporteurs, among others. The Court’s judges benefit from amici curie - advice from renowned international experts provided on request for specific cases.

The project focuses particularly on the use of constitutional justice to deal with gender equality issues, and the defence of vulnerable people, such as the elderly, people with disabilities, minorities and other underrepresented groups. Training opportunities and awareness-raising efforts will also provide wider audience, including youth, with the knowledge on the essence of constitutional justice tools.

This effort is part of the OSCE Secretariat Extra-Budgetary Support Programme for Ukraine implemented with extra-budgetary contributions from the Organization's participating States; see the full list of the Programme's donors.