EUAM discusses international support with Ukraine’s new Prosecutor General
August 11, 2022
Head of the EU Advisory Mission (EUAM), Antti Hartikainen, met with the newly appointed Prosecutor General, Andriy Kostin, to elaborate on the best ways for international support in the investigating and prosecuting war crimes and assistance needed to insure success for Ukraine’s prosecutorial reform.
EUAM considers it of utmost importance to establish accountability for the atrocities committed in the Russian aggression. For now, the Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General already registered over 40,500 cases related to international crimes.
The Mission will continue to support Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies in fighting for truth and justice through advice, mentoring, specialised training, equipment donation and communication/coordination support.
The Prosecutor General highlighted the contribution of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group, joint EU, U.K. and U.S. initiative, which EUAM is a member of. “Ukraine was able to achieve progress primarily due to the support from its international partners,” underlined Mr Kostin, “but we will need more of your assistance to overcome challenges in the future. The Office of the Prosecutor General plays the key role in ensuring the documentation and investigation of Russian war crimes in Ukraine and coordinating international assistance in this area. With our joint efforts, we must activate and systematise the work of international experts who support Ukrainian law enforcement agencies because our goal is to restore justice”.
Following the decision to grant Ukraine EU membership perspective and candidate country status, Ukraine needs to pursue further reforms, such as adopting an overarching strategic plan for the reform of the law enforcement sector.
The reform of the Prosecution Service in Ukraine has been ongoing before the Russian invasion. Despite all challenges it is important to build upon this process and to insure its success.
Many of important reform steps have been launched and supported by EUAM, such as attestation of prosecutors, regulation on prosecutors’ annual performance evaluation, concept on E-case management system, the electronic human resources management system, etc.
However, many of these reform processes have not been finalised yet, including the attestation of prosecutors, merit-based promotions to higher positions, merit-based performance evaluation, transformation of the Prosecution of Training Centre, and implementation of the e-case management system, improving disciplinary proceedings and Code of Ethics.
Besides that, the basis of the reform should be the comprehensive criminal justice and law enforcement agencies reform concept, which was developed before the Russian invasion.
EUAM will continue to provide support to the prosecution service in the investigation and prosecution of international crimes as well as its pre-war support to the reform of the prosecution service. EUAM also stands ready to support Ukrainian authorities in implementing the recommendation of the EU Commission.
Representatives of the EU Delegation to Ukraine also attended the meeting, along with the EU Pravo-Justice II Project, the EU PRAVO Police Programme, the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative (EUACI), the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, the British Embassy, the US Embassy, the International Development Law Organisation (IDLO), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Embassy of Canada and the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group.
