On April 19, Counterpart Creative Center and Civil Society Institute represented their partnership project “Improving access to justice for the rural population“ that is funded by the European Union. The project is aimed at educating citizens of rural districts about management of civil and administrative conflicts in legal form and creating appropriate organizational and legal conditions to introduce the courts of justice and courts of arbitration in the selected four rural districts.

Project Director - Volodymyr Kupriy represented a goal, objectives and main Project components - education of rural population and providing relevant organizational and legal environment for activity of non-governmental judicial agencies. During 2006-2008 it is planed to conduct training courses and seminars for citizens and official bodies; to establish four consulting services in order to render assistance to rural communities in development of courts of arbitration or courts of justice; to publish informational and methodological handbooks.

Adviser to the President of Ukraine – the Chief of Main Regional and Personnel Policy Department of the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine - Anatoliy Tkachuk - mentioned the peculiarity and innovative issues of the Project. As Mr. Tkachuk considered, the important thing about the Project was in its direction “to change psychology and mentality of a citizen”. A citizen should be ready to solve a conflict on a local level, and not to address the highest State instances. Besides, Mr. Tkachuk declared that activity of courts of arbitration could lighten the work of courts of general jurisdiction.

In his turn, a first deputy of Chairman of Arbitration Chamber of Ukraine - Yuriy Myhalskiy, told about development of arbitration courts in Ukraine, about challenges, which initiators had crossed, about a problem of insufficient number of such courts.

The participants of the presentation accepted that the project activity would help to develop and establish new mechanisms of self-regulation of society and would provide an opportunity to change a quality of the relationships between authorities and citizens, especially at local level. Also this project would allow clarifying need of establishment of courts of justice.

For further information please contact:
Olena Bondar, Project Manager
Tel. (044) 574 64 11; fax (044) 574 64 13
E-mail: bondar@ccc.kiev.ua