Council of Europe in cooperation with the Prosecutors’ Training Center of Ukraine launched the HELP course on “International Cooperation in Criminal Cases”

© Prosecutors’ Training Center of Ukraine

On November 1, 2024, the Council of Europe in cooperation with the Prosecutors’ Training Center of Ukraine launched the HELP course on “International Cooperation in Criminal Cases”.

The course covers key aspects of mutual legal assistance, extradition, transfer of sentenced persons, and confiscation of criminal proceeds. It becomes particularly important in the context of armed conflict and Ukraine’s European integration aspirations, when effective international cooperation becomes critical for the criminal justice system.

The course tutors – Vasyl Kozii and Viktoriia Lytovka, experts and consultants of the Prosecutors’ Training Center of Ukraine, and Oleksii Homaniuk, Head of the Legal Assistance Unit of the Legal Assistance and Extradition Office, prosecutor of the International Cooperation Department of the Office of the Prosecutor General – presented the structure of the course, which will run until December 6, 2024.

The course launch was attended by prosecutors from different regions of Ukraine working in the field of international cooperation, as well as civil servants of the prosecution authorities.

Participants explored the HELP platform and training methodology, as well as the specifics of international cooperation in criminal cases during armed conflict.

During the event, national and international experts in international criminal law presented current topics related to international cooperation in criminal cases. In particular, Dmytro Tretyakov, lawyer at the Registry of the Strasbourg Court, highlighted European standards and the European Court of Human Rights case law on extradition and legal assistance.

Catherine Carrie, Council of Europe International Consultant, focused on cooperation mechanisms for the confiscation of proceeds of crime. Myroslava Krasnoborova, Liaison Prosecutor for Ukraine at Eurojust, spoke about the organisation’s role in facilitating international legal cooperation.

The event was organised within the framework of two Council of Europe projects: “Fostering Human Rights in the Criminal Justice System in Ukraine” and “HELP for Ukraine, including during wartime”, which are part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” 2023-2026.