Ukraine's justice ministry reports on payments under ECHR rulings

"Today, we have no overdue debts related to the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights... This is a huge progress that was noted by the ECHR and the Council of Europe. Today, we ranked fifth, being ahead of Russia, Romania, Hungary, etc.," she said at a press conference on January 23.

Between 2014 and 2017, the Ministry of Justice managed to close 125 cases for reimbursement of funds to citizens, including 100 cases completed in the past year alone.

The official noted that to compensate for losses to the state budget due to the implementation of the ECHR rulings, the Justice Ministry filed 823 applications to the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) of Ukraine against companies or individuals who violated the citizens' rights from 2014 to 2017. The damage from violations that affected the interests of almost 2,000 people is estimated at over UAH 85 million ($2.9 million).

Read alsoKyiv lodges with ECHR some 4,000 suits related to Donbas, CrimeaBernatska says that law enforcement agencies are now establishing whether there is a fault of particular individuals that the ECHR handed down such rulings. Today, the PGO is considering another 722 such applications filed by the Justice Ministry concerning 5,300 persons, whose rights might have been violated by specific companies, institutions or individuals.

"We undertake to improve the legislation so that in each case, in which the court ruling was executed, we along with the law enforcers had instruments to identify and then recover from the person funds for the benefit of citizens," she added.