EU Project Pravo-Justice Has Launched the Course on the Principles of Mediation for MoJ

The EU Project Pravo-Justice has launched a training course on the principles of mediation for the Secretariat of the European Court of Human Rights Commissioner. The training will be delivered at the request of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and is aimed at giving a general understanding of the essence of mediation, advantages of the mediation procedure, and peculiarities of its application in a number of situations relating to the representation of Ukraine at the ECtHR.

“In November, it is a one-year anniversary of adoption of the Law on Mediation. This is an extremely important step for the development of mediation in Ukraine. Mediation is also of paramount importance in the context of Ukraine’s representation at the ECtHR. In the first place, mediation is an effective way of reducing the burden on courts and is of key significance in the context of implementation of the judgments “Naumenko v. Ukraine” and “Merit v. Ukraine”, which concern the problem of excessive length of court proceedings. It also provides an opportunity to settle disputes amicably before the ECtHR considers them. Another thing is the application of mediation in the regulation of issues that arise in the context of the Hague Convention of 1980 on the Civil Law Aspects of International Child Abduction and other situations related to the upbringing and establishment of custody of children. In the framework of this training course, we will discuss it all together and will look for answers to the questions about how you can practically use mediation in your work,” said Oksana Tsymbrivska, Country Manager of the EU Project Pravo-Justice, when addressing to the participants.

“We are very grateful to you for having organized this event for us. Mediation as an ADR tool is important both at the stage of state representation in the European Court of Human Rights and at the stage of execution of judgments,” said Tetiana Zavalko, Head of Unit, Unit of Informing the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

The course consists of a theoretical part and a practical one. After some general introduction to mediation, such as basic terminology, what the procedure looks like, what principles it is based on and what cases can be mediated, the trainees will learn in practice some effective mediation techniques; working with parties to a conflict; applying mediation in the context of the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Co-operation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children and other issues related to Ukraine’s representation in the ECtHR.

Course trainers:

• Alina Sergeeva, IMI certified mediator; lawyer; representative of Ukraine in the European Association of Judges for Mediation; Visiting Expert of Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania); National Expert of the EU Project Pravo-Justice.
• Tetiana Tsuvina, Doctor of Law; Associate Professor of the Civil Justice and Bar Department of the Yaroslav the Wise National Law University; mediator; Visiting professor at Graz University (Austria); National Expert of the EU Project Pravo-Justice.

The next step will be the development of a mediation roadmap in the operation of MoJ and recommendations as to its practical application by relevant departments.