The Ukrainian Bar Association presents to your attention a report on the results of the project "The trial monitoring in war crimes cases" that was implemented by the UBA in collaboration with the USAID Human Rights in Action Program, implemented by the Ukrainian Helsinki Union for Human Rights.

The project involved conducting pilot monitoring of judicial proceedings and court decisions in cases of war crimes with the aim to:

• analyze the new judicial practice in Ukraine related to the consideration of cases of war crimes, as well as the role of the prosecutor's office and the quality of defense for suspects, accused, and victims;
• form an understanding of how such judicial practice corresponds to international standards, including human rights;
• in case of identifying any deficiencies, draw the attention of the judicial community to them and propose possible ways to address them.

The trial monitoring took place from July to October 2023, inclusive, in the courts of Kyiv City, Kyiv region, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Odesa, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

As part of the project, sentences in cases of war crimes from February 2022 to October 2023 were also analyzed for their reasoning, justification, proper qualification of unlawful actions, and compliance with the requirements of Ukrainian criminal procedural law for the consideration of criminal cases. To complete the investigation, Ukrainian legislation was also analyzed for its compliance with international law.

For the monitoring, the UBA assembled a team consisting of two main national experts in the field of international law and human rights and seven monitors who are lawyers with experience in the field of law. The monitors attended court hearings and analyzed the court decisions in accordance with a pre-approved questionnaire. The methodology and questionnaire for monitoring were prepared by the UBA jointly with experts from the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association (IBAHRI) and the Asser Institute.

The text of the report can be found at this link.