The EU Project Pravo-Justice together with the Ministry of Justice presented the monitoring report for 2022 in the field of forensic examination

How to improve the work of forensic experts in Ukraine and involve foreign experts in investigating crimes committed by the Russian military on the territory of Ukraine? Answers to these questions were discussed on February 8 in course of the presenting the annual monitoring report on the application of legislation in the field of forensic examination, which was conducted by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine with the support of the EU Project Pravo-Justice.

“Given full-scale aggression by Russia, forensic experts’ activity is of great importance. They are the ones who should determine the extent of the damage caused by the crimes committed by the Russian military,” said Oleksandr Banchuk, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine when addressing the event participants and explaining how relevant the topic of the monitoring report is.

Iryna Zharonkina, Property Rights and Enforcement Component Lead, EU Project Pravo-Justice said in her welcome remarks that Project international experts were actively involved in drawing the conclusions of the monitoring conducted.

“Forensic examination is focused on by the European Commission. We will further be ready to respond to requests from the Ministry of Justice and forensic experts and provide all necessary support for developing and improving the field of forensic expertise in Ukraine,” said Iryna Zharonkina.

The presentation of the monitoring report itself began with covering the issues related to involving foreign experts in conducting forensic examinations in Ukraine.

“Why is this question urgent? Involving foreign experts will make it possible to build the appropriate evidence base for future trials. It will also be an additional factor in the information campaign to inform the world community about the crimes committed by the armed forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine”, - explained Anastasiia Ulasevych, state expert of the expert group on justice-related legal institutions of the Directorate of Justice and Criminal Justice of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.

The representative of the Ministry of Justice said that it seems that engaging foreign experts in conducting foreign examinations in Ukraine is regulated in Ukrainian legislation. However, the legislative rules are written in such a way that they can be interpreted ambiguously.

“Article 23 of the Law “On Forensic Expertise” provides that the head of a forensic expert institution, if necessary and upon agreement with the person requesting the expert opinion, can involve a specialist from a foreign country to conduct forensic opinion. This wording gives reason to believe that heads of institutions can independently engage foreign specialists. However, this is not so,” said Anastasiia Ulasevych. She added that the government draft law No. 6284 “On forensic Expert Activity” has been submitted for consideration to the Parliament of Ukraine. This draft law solves the ambiguous interpretation of the mechanism for involving foreign experts that now exists.

During the presentation of the monitoring report, the following issues were discussed in detail: recognizing the results of forensic examinations conducted abroad and interrogating a foreign forensic expert; preserving documents by forensic experts in wartime and/or during the state of emergency.

Anastasiia Ulasevych voiced the following proposals of the Directorate: “It is necessary to create a single joint by-law to govern evacuation, preservation and destruction of documents under martial law. Moreover, it is necessary to amend the procedural legislation and set out that the expert provides his/her opinion in written and electronic forms”.

You can review the Monitoring report by following the link.

You can view full video recording of the presentation of the Monitoring Report here.