The UNBA will continue to seek changes for advocates’ work in penitentiary institutions

On 21 February 2017 the premises of the UNBA Secretariat hosted a round table "Implementation of changes to the internal regulations of detention centres".

The round table was attended by representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Ministry of Justice, Committee on Liquidation of the SPSU, National Police, Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner on Human Rights and representatives of the UNBA Committees on protection of advocates’ rights and professional guarantees and on human rights. The purpose of the event was to elaborate joint changes in the penal institutions in accordance with European standards.

During the meeting, the participants discussed problematic issues emerging in the work of advocates and representatives of the pre-trial investigation authorities during visits of citizens in penitentiary institutions.

In order to prepare this meeting, the UNBA Committee on protection of advocates’ rights and professional guarantees conducted a research to identify the most problematic issues occurring in detention facilities throughout Ukraine.

A widespread debate was caused by the requirement for advocates to get a permission to enter a penitentiary institution with a tablet and compliance by the prison staff with advocates’ professional secrecy during the inspection of tablets.

According to Sergiy Chabanyuk, acting head of the MoJ Department of organization of detention facilities, amendments have been prepared to the internal regulations of the detention facilities taking into account the existing remarks and contemporary problems.

It will be recalled that in 2016 the UNBA representatives together with the representatives of the SPSU held a number of working meetings on the reform of the penitentiary system. Thus, in new draft Regulations, paragraph 7 is drafted as follows:

"Law enforcement officers, court officials and defenders shall be allowed to bring materials and documents necessary for the exercise of powers determined by the legislation, with the mandatory inspection at the entrance of a detention facility for prohibited items. Such inspection should exclude acquaintance with the contents of those documents. In cases provided for by the CCP Ukraine the law enforcement officers, courts officials and defenders shall be allowed to bring technical devices (without a possibility to make calls and access internet) for audio and video recording of procedural actions".

For law enforcement officials, status of an advocate’s certificate and confirmation of identity of a defender have proved to be problematic. In accordance with Article 50 CCP, powers of a defender are confirmed by a certificate of the right to practice law and a warrant, but the certificate and advocate’s ID are not identity documents of a person and, therefore, this question requires a legislative regulation. The UNBA representatives explained that advocates’ IDs have the single approved sample in accordance with the statutory requirements for this document. Therefore, documents issued by commercial companies or NGOs containing the word "advocate" and its derivatives cannot confirm a status or identity of an advocate. Full details of the procedure for obtaining documents for advocates are published at the UNBA website.

The participants of the roundtable also discussed conditions of detention in detention facilities endangering citizens’ health. There are real risks of contracting infectious diseases transmitted by airborne or household way in penitentiary institutions, and the legal aid advocates providing defence on assignment also risk contracting those diseases, as they do not usually have information about their client’s health. This question is still open since it is connected with the prohibition of disclosure of medical secrecy, but the problem needs to be addressed as soon as possible.

The participants also discussed other unjustified prohibitions, for example, a prohibition to bring drinking water or plastic bags.

Following the discussion, it was decided to carry out further monitoring of work of detention facilities in order to improve the working conditions of advocates with clients. In particular, the participants talked about the plans to create special rooms for advocates with office equipment and legal literature in detention facilities.