UNBA and CCBE will hold a joint conference on advocates’ rights on November 10 in Kyiv

On November 10 the UNBA and the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) will hold a joint conference in Kyiv.

The conference will be devoted to the most urgent problem of the Ukrainian bar, namely, the “Advocates’ rights and obligations in the investigative proceedings”.

The conference will discuss such issues like searches of advocate’s premises and seizures of documents and computer equipment, summoning advocates as witnesses in cases against their clients, demands for privileged documents and information. The preliminary agenda also includes investigative actions against an advocate, damage to advocates’ property, denying advocates’ access to the location under investigative actions and criminal liability for providing legal aid, which became a special know-how violation of the advocates’ rights in Ukraine. This block of questions is united under the title “Legislative and practical problems of Ukrainian advocates, as defined by the advocates themselves”.

During the second session the peculiarities of legislation and legal practice in the EU countries will be discussed. The discussion moderator will be the Vice-President of the French Bar International Commission. The third session will be devoted to the advocates’ guarantees to practice law, provided for by the EU legislation and international documents. The following discussion sessions will be held on issues related to the bar self-governance (the role of professional bar associations in the provision of professional rights and guarantees), the reform of Ukrainian specialized legislation and the need to strengthen the protection of the advocates’ rights and guarantees at the European international level. The format of each session includes a question-answer block.

It is to be recalled that on December 2, 2016 the Ukrainian National Bar Association became an observer member of the CCBE.

The CCBE is an international non-profit organization founded in 1960. It is the “voice of the legal profession”, which speaks on behalf of more than 1 million European advocates and bar associations of 45 countries. Ukraine became the 11th observer member of the CCBE.