Ukraine

Online expert talk on ‘civil partnerships’

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Published: May 2, 2023
Former Deputy Secretary Dr. Thomas Meyer in the Federal Ministry of Justice during the online expert talk on civil partnerships on 12 April 2023.
Former Deputy Secretary Dr. Thomas Meyer in the Federal Ministry of Justice during the online expert talk on civil partnerships on 12 April 2023.
Ukraine

The action plan for the implementation of the National Strategy in the area of human rights for 2021-2023, which was already adopted in Ukraine on 23 June 2021, according to which the institution of registered civil partnerships is also planned. This issue has also become particularly important and relevant in the current situation, as a large number of members of the LGBTQI community are serving in the ranks of the armed forces in the defence of Ukraine. A corresponding draft law is therefore being prepared.

At the request of the Ministry of Justice of the Ukraine, the IRZ therefore organised an online expert talk on the subject of ‘civil partnerships’ on 12 April 2023. Former Deputy Secretary Dr. Thomas Meyer, who is currently the long-serving Head of Division at the Federal Ministry of Justice and was involved in the drafting of the German Civil Partnership Act served as the German expert. In his first lecture, Dr. Meyer set out the general social and political situation at that time and the emergence and development of the German Civil Partnership Act. In the second part, he discussed the regulations of the German Civil Partnership Act in more detail, and its further revision up to the introduction of marriage for all in 2017.

Representatives from the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, including the Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine Dr. Oleksandr Banchuk and Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine for European Integration Valeriia Kolomiiets, and representatives of civil society (charity organisation ‘100 Percent Life’ and National LGBTI Consortium #LGBTI_PRO) participated in the online expert talk.

With regard to the planned introduction of a law on ‘civil partnerships’, the Ukrainian contributions to the expert talk referred to the prohibition of discrimination in Article 24 of the Constitution of Ukraine and Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Ukrainian partners emphasised that this does not include same-sex marriage, but a registered civil partnership only. This is because firstly, the Constitution of Ukraine and the Family Code defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and any changes to the Constitution are prohibited under martial law, which is currently in force. Secondly, although the results of recent opinion polls on the right to a registered civil partnership have been extremely positive, we must recognise that this change is fairly revolutionary for a large portion of Ukrainian society.

Furthermore, this development not only applies to Ukraine. Many European countries, including Germany, initially introduced the institution of registered civil partnerships and only over the years have these countries entitled homosexual and heterosexual couples to full equality, although only the institution of civil partnership exists in some countries.

Working visit of a delegation from the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine

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Published: April 25, 2023
Ukraine

A delegation from the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine paid a working visit on international criminal law to Berlin in the last week of March. The idea for this working visit was prompted by a meeting between the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Andriy Kostin, and the Prosecutor General, Dr. Peter Frank at the G7 meeting of justice ministers in Berlin in autumn 2022.

The Office of the Public Prosecutor and the Federal Ministry of Justice were happy to comply with the Ukrainian request to hold expert talks on investigative methods regarding international criminal law and war crimes. The IRZ organised this work visit, where representatives of the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine were invited to spend three days at the Federal Ministry of Justice and meet their colleagues from the Office of the Prosecutor General and the Federal Criminal Police Office, and with Senior Public Prosecutor, Klaus Hoffmann, who is currently working within the framework of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group in Ukraine, to engage in intensive discussions on the relevant issues relating to the investigation of international crimes.

Exchange of experiences of the Kyiv Court of Appeal and the Oldenburg Higher Regional Court

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Published: April 25, 2023
The Vice President of the Kyiv Court of Appeal, Hanna Kryzhanivska (middle), with fellow judges during the online expert talks 22 March 2023.
The Vice President of the Kyiv Court of Appeal, Hanna Kryzhanivska (middle), with fellow judges during the online expert talks 22 March 2023.
Ukraine

The cooperation between the Oldenburg Higher Regional Court and the Kyiv Court of Appeal was initiated and is maintained by the IRZ and has existed since 2016. A European judicial identity is promoted through the regular collegial and professional exchange between the two courts.

The online meeting was originally scheduled for the end of 2022, but had to be cancelled twice due to a power failure caused by the war. The exchange finally took place on 22 March 2023 – despite the air raid warning in Kyiv. The focus of the expert talk was the topic of “e-justice”.

The participants in the online expert talks first discussed the current situation and case law of the Ukrainian judiciary and the Kyiv Court of Appeal under the current wartime conditions. In their presentation, the judges of the Kyiv Court of Appeal, Borys Levenets and Yurii Tryasun, described the organisation of the work of the court in the first months of the war and the current features of court proceedings under martial law conditions.

Another topic of discussion was the introduction of electronic files in the judiciary. Dr. Jana Bruns-Klaes, judge at the Oldenburg Higher Regional Court, discussed the following points: electronic legal transactions and electronic files, the impact on persons seeking justice and the impact on the judiciary. The deputy chair of the Kyiv Court of Appeal, Hanna Kryzhanivska, then reported on the experiences at her court in this respect, and the specific challenges of electronic justice.

The exchange of experiences between judges of the Kyiv Court of Appeal and the Higher Regional Court of Oldenburg is to be continued in the future - if possible, also in person, for example through a working visit to Oldenburg. The President of the Oldenburg Higher Regional Court, Anke van Hove, and the IRZ emphasised the importance of maintaining the dialogue between the two courts at this time, and reiterated their willingness to continue the cooperation.