On November 14, UHHRU took part in the annual conference “Autumn Meetings. Law and Justice in Post-Conflict Societies: European Experience”. Tomorrow, November 15, the Union will join the meeting of the CivilM+ Platform. Both events are conducted in Berlin.

At the conference, Executive Director of Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Oleksandr Pavlichenko spoke about the measures Ukraine undertook for implementation of the concept of the transitional justice, and looking for other methods of surmounting international armed conflict. The participants shared their views on the experience of European countries in implementation of the post-conflict recovery measures.

Against the background of numerous international and national conflicts in Europe over several decades, in particular in the former Soviet Union countries, Berlin “Autumn Meetings” shall define the range of possible options for a way out of the crisis and explore European experience in the context of the transitional justice. English term “transitional justice” is a more precise reflection of the complexity of the processes, than the German, Ukrainian or Russian equivalents of the term: apart from the semantics of the “law” and institutional “justice” it conveys also the semantics of “fairness”, which can be different from the social and individual points on view. Such broad understanding of the term “transitional justice” covers not only legal but also socio-historical understanding of coping with conflicts, and integration of the criminal prosecution, establishing of the truth and reconciliation. That way, it is an important pre-condition of the sustainable peaceful and democratic development in the post-conflict societies.

Also, on November 15 the closed expert event will be conducted, devoted to the transitional justice, which is prepared as part of one of the five directions of the thematic activities of the CivilM+ platform. The mission of the CivilM+ is active integration of civil initiatives to restore Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts as peaceful, integrated and developed regions as part of Ukraine and a united European space, with the active participation of the region’s population and those who have left the region due to the conflict.

Text by Olena Semyorkina, UHHRU Analyst