OVERVIEW OF MONITORING FINDINGS REASONABLE TIME Constitution of Ukraine (Article 129): “The main principles of judicial proceedings shall be: … reasonable time for the consideration of the case by a court …”. Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Article 6): “everyone is entitled to … hearing within a reasonable time…”. Law of Ukraine On the Judiciary and Status of Judges (Article 7 as of the time of conduction of the monitoring): “Everyone is guaranteed the protection of his\her rights, freedoms and interests within reasonable time...”. This monitoring did not aim to monitor the duration of trials as it did not observe the trial from beginning to end, but only hearings in different cases. Although the monitoring results do not give a comprehensive understanding of the problem of observing reasonable time limits of court trials, certain items in the questionnaire allowed to identify serious problems. Only 54% of the hearings, which the monitors planned to visit, took place. In other cases, the hearing did not take place either due to the absence of the judge, due to the failure of the parties to appear or for other reasons. Substantial human, financial and time resources could have been saved in case the courts would have taken efficient actions to encourage the parties to settle. According to the monitors’ evaluation, the court took settlement actions only in 52% of cases where that was necessary. The monitors noted lack of precision in the beginning of court hearings. Only in 20% of cases the court hearing started on time or with a 5-minute delay. To sum it up, serious problems which may have negative influence on the observance of procedural timeframes were identified: • almost every second scheduled court hearing did not take place; • the courts underestimated the potential of settlement tools in adjudication; • only each fifth court hearing started on time. BEST SCORE 0,4 points WORST SCORE The court hearing took place on the day it was scheduled. -3 points The court hearing started on time. AVERAGE SCORE FOR OBSERVING REASONABLE TIME LIMITS (evaluated based on the limited indicators noted above) – 0,8 -5 20 0 5 MONITORING OF ADHERENCE TO FAIR TRIAL STANDARDS IN UKRAINE