OVERVIEW OF MONITORING FINDINGS ADHERENCE TO GENERAL RULES OF PROCEDURE According to the monitors, the court conducted the hearings: 5% impeccably in 48 % of the cases with minor violations – in 47 % of the cases 47% with gross violations of procedural rules and the rights of the parties to the proceeding – in 5 % of the cases HOW THE COURT CONDUCTED THE HEARINGS 48% Law of Ukraine On the Judiciary and Status of Judges (Article 12): “Judicial proceedings and case management in courts of Ukraine shall be conducted in the official language of the country/state language. The courts shall ensure the equality of rights of citizens in a court process regarding their language. Courts shall use the official language in the course of the proceedings and guarantee citizens' right to use their native language, or the language they speak, in the course of the proceedings.” According to the findings of the monitoring, the provisions of the law regarding the language of trial were observed in 96% of cases. The courts used the Russian language sporadically or sometimes switched into Russian completely. Sometimes the representatives of national minorities who had a bad command of the state language (Hungarians and Roma) did not receive translation services. Law of Ukraine On the Judiciary and Status of Judges (Article 16): “Judges shall exercise justice wearing a robe and a badge”. In 88% of cases the judge conducted the trial wearing a robe and a badge. Sometimes, it was the presence of monitors which motivated the judge to put on the robe and badge. In many cases the judge did not wear the robe and/or the badge. From the questionnaire of a monitor in a district administrative court: “The judge conducted the hearing without a robe and badge [...]. I understood that this was a judge only when he seated himself in the respective chair”. The rules of court procedure required verification of identity of trial participants who appeared at the hearing. The monitors recorded compliance with this requirement in 95% of cases. The procedural codes established the rules regarding the confidentiality of the deliberations room that require the court to deliver a judgement immediately after considering a case behind closed doors and in the absence of any other persons except for the judges themselves. The confidentiality of the deliberations room was observed in 94% of the cases (however, if administrative offence cases for which the law does not establish the deliberations 10 MONITORING OF ADHERENCE TO FAIR TRIAL STANDARDS IN UKRAINE