The delegation at an expert talk with members of the Committee on Legal Affairs at the German Bundestag. Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova
The IRZ conducted a study trip in North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin on the subject of combating corruption and money laundering for a delegation from the Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia. The Committee on Legal Affairs of the German Bundestag also received the guests as part of the diverse programme.
In 2022, the European Union granted Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova EU candidate status and Georgia was also offered the prospect of EU accession. The German Bundestag therefore provided the IRZ with additional funds to conduct cooperation with these three partner countries As the recommendations of the EU Commission for the necessary legal reforms in all three states emphasised in particular the fight against corruption and organised crime, the IRZ implemented a study trip with the relevant specialist focus in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The participants were representatives from various governmental and non-governmental institutions from Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia that are responsible for preventing and prosecuting cases of corruption.
The State Justice Minister Dr. Benjamin Limbach, received the delegation In North Rhine-Westphalia, This was followed by appointments at the State Office of Criminal Investigations and the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Düsseldorf. The guests also visited the main departments of the Public Prosecutor's Offices in Wuppertal and Bochum, and engaged in expert talks to explore in-depth issues around the confiscation of assets and organised crime. At a meeting with the European Public Prosecutor's Office, they also discussed the subject of “Investigations into cases of fraud and tax evasion affecting the European budget of the European Union”.
The delegation then travelled to Berlin, where it was received by the Committee on Legal Affairs of the German Bundestag. Dr. Günter Krings, MdB, chaired the discussion, in which the participants explained the progress made to date and the major challenges in the fight against corruption in Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia. The study trip was rounded off with expert talks at the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Homeland. The focus here was on “Measures to prevent corruption in the federal administration”.
A similar study trip on the theme of “Independence of the judiciary” to Lower Saxony and Berlin is planned for August 2023 with participants from Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia to further promote exchanges between the three partner states as part of the EU accession process.
Prof. Dr. Stefan Kröll, LL.M., Bucerius Law School, Chairman of the Deutsche Institution für Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit (DIS) (German Arbitration Institute), with the team from the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. Ukraine
IRZ supported the participation of Ukrainian students in the pre-moots for the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot. The pre-moots were held in March 2023 in Berlin (Humboldt Moot Association e.V.) and Hamburg (Bucerius Law School).
Four students from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and two from the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv took part in the event in Berlin, and two students from the National Ivan Franko University in Lviv took part in the same event in Hamburg.
The feedback from the participants was very positive. In their letters of thanks, the participants emphasised how inspiring it was to take part, and they viewed the event as a defining moment in their future legal careers. This experience clearly demonstrated to them the importance of arbitration.
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.
