OSCE supports series of training seminars on election legislation for administrative and local court judges in Ukraine

More than 200 administrative and local court judges from all over Ukraine participated at the OSCE-supported training seminars on review of election-related disputes, which held from 28 September to 9 October 2015.

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine and the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine organized seminars in Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv. A special event in Kharkiv gathered specifically judges from Donetsk and Luhansk regions to assist them with handling the electoral disputes.

Four training sessions on uniform interpretation of election legislation aimed at strengthening the capacity of judges in electoral disputes resolution in view of the upcoming local elections, scheduled for 25 October 2015, and enhansing the coherence of administrative court practices in Ukraine.

The participants  discussed a new Ukrainian law on local elections adopted in 2015,  legal challenges related to election campaigning, the European Court of Human Rights case-law relevant to  voting rights and the practices of the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine..

The training seminars are part of the project implemented at the request of the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine, with financial support from the government of Germany.

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator and the ODIHR/OSCE election observation mission operate independently, under their separate mandates.