The publication features results of the “Precedent UA – 2016” study jointly conducted by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and High Specialized Court of Ukraine for Civil and Criminal Cases regarding the application of 116 verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights in cases versus Ukraine involving Article 5 (right to liberty) of the European Convention on Human Rights, based on the data of the Unified State Register of Court Decisions of Ukraine covering the period between 1 January 2006 and 2 August 2016. 

The study is meant for judges, advocates, prosecutors, lawyers, human rights activists, entrants and students of law schools, scientists and researchers as well as the general public.

Preface by Arkadiy Bushchenko

This is a second edition, dedicated to the application of ECtHR case law by national courts. This time, together with the High Specialized Court for Civil and Criminal Cases, UHHRU studied ECtHR’s approach to Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union believes that the issue of compliance with ECtHR decisions is not limited to introducing legislative amendments. The issue goes deeper than that: it involves changing approaches to resolving certain issues, attitudes toward the issues and the paradigms in society’s legal culture as a whole. The primary role here belongs to lawyers, judges in particular, who adopt human rights based approaches in their daily practice. We appreciate the efforts of judges in this area and would like to note the significant progress of the judicial system when it comes to applying ECtHR case law. And while not all judges have adopted these approaches yet, the number of those adhering to ECtHR decisions is constantly growing.
Considering the modern trend of universal disparagement of the judicial system and judges, we deem it necessary to express our gratitude and respect for the judges that support steady adoption of human rights standards in Ukraine’s court practice.
UHHRU will continue to study the role of judges in the implementation of ECtHR case law.

Full text of case law study “PRECEDENT UA – 2016” in Ukrainian is here