OSCE Centre in Astana organizes study tour to Ukraine on criminal procedure legislation

The OSCE Centre in Astana and the Legislative and Judicial Reform Committee of the Mazhilis (lower chamber of the Parliament) with support of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine and Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry, co-organized a study visit to Kyiv, Ukraine for parliamentarians and high-level governmental officials from 21 to 23 November 2013.

Ten representatives from the Mazhilis, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Interior Ministry, the Agency on the Fight against Economic and Corruption Crimes, as well as from Kazakhstan’s Bar Association learned about the application of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine that entered into force one year ago.

The programme included visits to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament), the Presidential Administration, the Ministries of the Interior and Justice, the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Bar Association.

During a series of meetings at the Verkhovna Rada, participants exchanged experiences with their counterparts from the Law Enforcement and Legal Policy Committees and discussed the ongoing legislative reform in the two countries, the law-making and implementation practices as well as co-operation between Kazakhstan and Ukraine in this field.

A particular emphasis was put on methods to make the criminal justice system more humane through the Ukrainian 2012 Criminal Procedure Code, such as simplified pre-trial procedures; plea bargaining; as well as on status, jurisdiction and liability of investigative judges; the role of defence lawyers in criminal proceedings; scope and instruments of judicial control and responsibilities of supervisory bodies throughout the judicial process cycle.

The delegation also met with the representatives of academia and NGOs, including the think-tank Legal Policy Institute. The group was accompanied by Jeannette Kloetzer, the Deputy Head of the OSCE Centre in Astana.