So where’s the penal reform?

Experts from the Council of Europe have criticized Ukraine for failing to analyze the recommendation on the running of the penal system made on the basis of three fact-finding missions to Ukraine.
Minister of Justice Oleksandr Lavrynovych reports that criticism of the State Department for the Execution of Sentences was expressed during a meeting between Ukraine and the CE on the penal reform program last week in Strasbourg.
He adds that the CE also criticized the State Department for being tardy in providing proposals for the 2007-2008 Action Plan on reforming the Ukrainian Penal System.
It had been planned that the proposals would be presented and the Action Plan approved in Strasbourg. However since the information was not provided on time, this has been postponed until May or June this year.
During the meeting, changes made during 2005 and 2006 were analyzed by Ukrainian and CE experts, and the report prepared by the State Department for the Execution of Sentences on implementation of the 2005-2006 Action Plan on reforming the Ukrainian Penal System was heard.
The Ukrainian delegation was made up of representatives of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the State Department for the Execution of Sentences, the Prosecutor General and the Supreme Court.
*** According to Ukraine’s commitment undertaken in 1995 as part of joining the Council of Europe to transfer the system of the execution of judgements to the Ministry of Justice (PACE Opinion № 190 (1995) and Resolution No. 1466 (2005). It must also carry out reforms to ensure prison standards in keeping with European norms and standards.

(based on information from the Ministry of Justice’s website)

PL One imagines that all of the above means that the (extremely!) longstanding commitment to transfer the system of the execution of judgements to the Ministry of Justice has yet again been put off.