Page 9 - Report on the infringement of rights and guarantees of attorneys in Ukraine_short version

WAYS TO OVERCOME NEGATIVE TENDENCIES

Building an awareness should be one of the actions aimed to
prevent violations of the rights of lawyers. Its main activity is
educate government agencies whose representatives often
become involved in violations of the rights of attorneys. This
includes such authorities as the Public Prosecutor's Office, the
PREVENTION Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine and its departments, the
OF VIOLATIONS Ministry of Internal Affairs, courts, the Security Service of Ukraine,
bodies of the state fiscal service, specialized bodies, e.g. NABU,
OF ATTORNEYS’ etc. It is also important to hold events for an attorney
RIGHTS community; for example, attorneys who provide free secondary
legal aid should clearly understand, in which cases their
participation in a process does not facilitate its implementation,
but, on the contrary, violates the right to defence. Another
preventive measure against violation of the rights and
guarantees of advocacy is an improvement of Legislation in this
field.

Coordination of actions of parties involved will allow to involve
specialists from various fields with sounding expert potential, to COORDINATION OF
strength both horizontal and vertical relations. It should include
a development of advocacy cooperation and a ACTIONS OF
self-government, an international communication, a PARTIES INVOLVED
cooperation of representatives of an advocacy community,
courts, prosecutors, international and national socio-political
groups, etc.

Utilisation of international mechanisms to protect the rights of attorneys
is not limited, as it may seem at first glance, solely to a submission of
individual complaints to the European Court of Human Rights. We shall
remind that its jurisdiction includes violations of the Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms by the
Member States of the Council of Europe. However, in addition to
INTERNATIONAL standard complaints, this institution has also so-called third-party
MECHANISMS intervention that allows drawing attention of the ECtHR to negative
tendencies in the field of human rights violations. Such an opportunity
FOR should be used in solving the problem of violation of the rights of

PROTECTING attorneys in Ukraine. Another international instrument specially
established to counteract violations against judges and attorneys is
THE RIGHTS the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of
OF ATTORNEYS Judges and Lawyers. A Special Rapporteur may intervene in state
affairs in specific cases of alleged violations of human rights, which are
in scope of his/her mandate. Such intervention may relate to human
rights violations that have already occurred, occur now or probably
will happen. Therefore, accompanied by full cooperation between
representatives of the advocacy, civil society institutions and other
parties involved, this institution can become an effective tool for
protecting the rights of attorneys and legal profession.

CONCLUSION

In general, every case of violations of the rights of an attorney requires close
attention from public authorities, civil society and international institutions. It should
be regarded as an offensive against basic human values such as human rights and
the rule of law, since it violates not only individual rights of an attorney, but also
seriously weakens opportunities of the profession of lawyer to perform its functions
to protect these values.

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