Individual access to the constitutional jurisdiction as a step forward to democracy

Potential of the constitutional justice in the field of protection of human rights and freedoms is not used enough in our country. For example, the experience of activity of organs of constitutional justice of the European countries testifies that neither civil servants of higher public authorities nor courts of general jurisdiction use the possibilities of constitutional justice in relation to the protection of human rights and freedoms as actively as it is done by physical persons.

On occasion of  the15-th anniversary of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and within the framework of chairmanship of Ukraine in the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe the International conference “Protection of human rights by the organs of constitutional justice: possibilities and problems of individual access” took place on September, 15–17, 2011 in Kyiv. The co-organizers of the event were the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice commission), and German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation. The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Lytvyn, Head of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe Mr. Gianni Buquicchio, Director of the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation Dirk Mirow, and also the representatives from the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and constitutional courts of different countries of the world. In general total number of participants of this event reached almost 100 persons from almost 20 countries.

Svitlana FILONENKO