In Warsaw, UBA joined the USAID-held discussion on role of the defense counsel in war crimes cases
The Ukrainian Bar Association joined the panel discussion "Role of the Defense Counsel in Securing Fair Trial Rights in War Crimes Cases", which was held by the USAID "Justice for All" Program on March 31 as part of the international conference " Ukraine: Where Are We Now? Legal Consequences A Year After Russia’s Full-Scale Attack on Ukraine", organized in Warsaw by the International Section of the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) in cooperation with the UBA and with the participation of USAID experts.
The discussion was attended by Inna Liniova, UBA Executive Director, Oleksandr Baranov, Acting Director of the Legal Aid Coordination Center, and experts from the USAID “Justice for All” Program — Marie O'Leary, Counsel for the Office of Public Counsel for the Defense at the International Criminal Court, and Professor Hans Petter Graver, a Norwegian legal scholar.
The participants of the discussion discussed the areas of improvement of lawyer's practice in ensuring the proper quality of defense in war crimes cases. The discussion revolved around ethical dilemmas in the representation of defendants in this category of cases and ways to increase public awareness that the participation of a defense attorney is an element of ensuring the right to a fair trial.
In addition, the speakers raised the issue of the inadmissibility of identifying the lawyer with the client, since the lawyer in criminal proceedings has a public mission to help the court in administering justice. Accusation of the defendant and his/her defense ensure the adversarial nature of the judicial process, because, according to Chapter VIII of the Constitution of Ukraine, both institutions — the bar and the procuracy — belong to the justice system.
Also, the participants of the event were informed about the implementation of the project to assess the training needs of Ukrainian lawyers — the defense side in the category of war crimes, which is being carried out with the assistance of the USAID Ukraine in cooperation with the Legal Aid Coordination Center and the UBA.