The Strategic Litigations Centre warns that attempts by the Prosecutor’s Office to put pressure on judges and make them obedient to their every whim destroy the last vestiges of an independent judiciary and carry the real threat of total collapse of the justice system

Updated to 1 April 2011

On 24 March 2011 the Supreme Court examined a cassation appeal lodged by Arkady Bushchenko on Mr Rafalsky’s behalf against a decision from the Kyiv Court of Appeal and sent the case back for a new appeal court level examination.

The Center is one of the most successful representatives of victims of human rights violations in Ukraine, especially as regards representation in the European Court of Human Rights. Lawyers of the Center and advocates, collaborating with the Center, have lodged more than hundred of applications to the European Court of Human Rights, over 40 of which is currently in communication with the Ukrainian government. To date 31 cases have been won in the European Court of Human Rights with the support of the Center

The Center began to operate in July 2003, when the Kharkiv Human Rights Group, in the framework of its program “Campaigning Against Torture and Ill-treatment in Ukraine” created the Fond of professional support to victims of torture and ill-treatment. In 2006 the Foundation was transformed into the Strategic Litigations Center. Currently the Center works with more than 200 cases

Activities of the Center are aimed at identification of structural problems in legislation, judicial and administrative practice, and at improvement of the situation through national and international legal mechanisms