The Rule of Law Unit of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine (PCU) implements projects that aim to uphold the rule of law, strengthen human rights and ensure transparency and openness in Ukraine's citizen-state relations. This includes a series of projects in the areas of administrative justice and administrative law, legislative process, constitutional justice, prevention of torture and ill-treatment, raising public awareness on human rights, development of effective remedy standards for human rights violations, and improvement of the legal education system.

Within the framework of these projects, the Rule of Law Unit conducts activities and assists with the publication of essential materials presenting international standards and good practices, including those of the Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Development of administrative justice

The PCU has been assisting Ukraine with the development of administrative justice in the country, with the overall goal of improving the effectiveness of the protection of individuals’ rights in their relations with state authorities. The Rule of Law Unit facilitates the drafting of legislation regulating citizen-state relations, organizes training for judges of administrative courts, supports the monitoring of court practices and publishes textbooks on administrative law and justice.

To implement these activities, the PCU co-operates with several Ukrainian partners, including the Higher Administrative Court, the Administrative Courts, the Academy of Judges and the Ministry of Justice.

Improving legal education in universities

The PCU is assisting its Ukrainian partners to improve legal education. This is seen as a prerequisite and a guarantee for the protection of human rights and the independence of the judiciary.The PCU places particular focus on strengthening legal skills, and training lawyers to respect, protect and promote human rights and support the proper functioning of human rights protection mechanisms.

In co-operation with Ukraine's leading law schools, the PCU is conducting a comprehensive comparative study of legal courses in Ukraine and internationally, developing model syllabuses for core legal courses and working on a policy paper on legal education improvement. The policy paper will serve as a roadmap for Ukrainian universities to further improve legal curricula and teaching methods.

Raising awareness of human rights and protection mechanisms

The PCU has been assisting Ukraine with the development of effective legal and institutional instruments for the protection of the rights of individuals in their relations with the state. A number of important pieces of legislation, including the Code of Administrative Court Procedure of Ukraine, have been adopted, providing citizens with legislative tools to protect their rights.

The PCU, in co-operation with the Ministry of Justice, is helping to popularize human rights protection mechanisms and build confidence in their effectiveness. The public awareness campaign supported by the PCU includes the development of social advertisements that will be shown on TV throughout Ukraine, and awareness activities for youth and civil society organizations – specialized information materials will be developed and disseminated at schools, universities and other public institutions. These efforts are complemented with capacity-building measures for public servants working directly with citizens. The project envisages strengthening the capacity of the staff of the Ministry of Justice to provide quality legal aid to citizens.

Strengthening rule of law and human rights protection

In close co-operation with the Parliamentary Committees of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine and the Supreme Court, the PCU provides expert support by reviewing draft laws submitted to the Parliament. These reviews serve to determine whether the drafts conform with international standards regarding democracy, human rights and justice, and if they are in line with OSCE and CoE commitments, and international best practice. In addition the project envisages the improvement of judicial approaches and methodologies in enforcing Ukraine's international human rights obligations.

National preventive mechanisms against torture and ill-treatment

Since 2006, the PCU has been implementing a project on the sustainable development of national preventive mechanisms (NPMs) against torture and ill-treatment. A civil monitoring system within law enforcement agencies in the form of mobile monitoring groups (MMGs) has been established with the assistance of the PCU. The MMGs, comprising representatives of civil society, human rights activists and civil servants, conduct regular visits to several governmental authorities, including prisons and care homes for children.

Identifying and combating corruption

The PCU contributes to the development of an efficient framework for exposing and prosecuting corruption. In 2010, the PCU supported country’s Justice Ministry with the development of methodology to assess the scale of corruption in Ukraine. In 2011, upon request of the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court, the PCU developed a Project to support the judiciary of Ukraine in the proper and efficient implementation of Ukraine’s international anti-corruption commitments, and to support the development of methods and statistical techniques to implement the national methodology for assessment of the level of corruption.

Appropriate remedy standards in human rights violation cases

Following up on the assistance it provided with the implementation of ECHR standards in judicial practice, the PCU is supporting the development of national judicial standards of state liability for human rights violations in accordance with ECHR case law. In addition, the PCU is supporting the introduction of alternative  remedies for violations of human rights, particularly in cases of class actions against the State. This includes the adoption of a compensation commission law and relevant guidelines. This initiative will help to fill a number of gaps both in the current Ukrainian law of remedies and in judicial practice.