The course "Investigation and trial of international crimes and gross violations of human rights" launched

On April 11, the EU Project Pravo-Justice in cooperation with the National School of Judges of Ukraine (NSJU) launched a cross-disciplinary training course "Investigation and trial of international crimes and gross violations of human rights" for judges and prosecutors.

Opening the course, the rector of the National School of Judges of Ukraine Mykola Onyshchuk thanked the EU Project Pravo-Justice for attention to an important topic, its theoretical and practical aspects.

"For the second time, international experts with significant work experience in the investigation of international crimes will conduct training for Ukrainian judges and prosecutors. The course will help to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills in the application of international humanitarian and international criminal law, because previously Ukrainian judges did not have the relevant experience", Mykola Onyshchuk noted.

In addition, the rector of NSJU announced another important course for judges and prosecutors, which the Project will conduct in cooperation with the School in the near future. It will focus on dealing with vulnerable witnesses in war crimes trials.

In turn, the International Key Expert on judicial reform of the EU Project Pravo-Justice Anna Adamska-Gallant noted the importance of a qualified investigation of war crimes, including under martial law.

"We are glad that we can help our Ukrainian colleagues to work more effectively with the complex challenges that arose due to the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation. It is Ukrainian judges and prosecutors who will consider most cases of war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law. Unfortunately, this is a large number of cases. Thus, since the beginning of the invasion, more than 70,000 criminal proceedings have already been initiated against the crimes of the Russians and their accomplices in Ukraine," said Anna Adamska-Gallant.

The trainers of the first module were international experts of the EU Project Pravo-Justice Gary Collins, specialist in humanitarian law (USA), and Cornelius Verhaeren, specialist in investigative activity, law and order and security (Netherlands). The experts and the course participants discussed the principles of international humanitarian law, international crimes and accountability.

During the six modules of the course, the students will familiarize themselves with the concepts and principles of international humanitarian law, forms of responsibility for international crimes, strategies and procedures of war crimes investigation, methods of interviewing vulnerable witnesses, defense strategies used in war crimes cases.