Ukraine should be one of the first to ratify the Convention on the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer - V. Gvozdiy

Ukraine definitely needs to be among the countries that will be the first to ratify the Convention on the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer, adopted by the Council of Europe on March 12, in order to confirm its status as a legal and democratic state.

This opinion was expressed by Valentyn Gvozdiy, the Vice President of the Ukrainian National Bar Association, the Bar Council of Ukraine, who was directly involved in the development of the draft document.

On March 12, 2025, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted the world's first Convention on the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer by its historic decision. It is planned that the Convention will become open for signature and ratification on May 13, 2025.

«For the legal community, this step is extremely important, because all existing standards directly related to the legal profession are currently not binding, - he said. - Therefore, ensuring compliance with these standards is a difficult task even in countries with strong legal protection of lawyers».

According to V. Gvozdiy, it is important that the Convention can be signed and ratified not only by Council of Europe members but also by non-member states. The Convention will enter into force 3 months after it is signed and ratified by at least eight countries, six of which must be members of the Council of Europe.

The Convention reflects and protects the fundamental role that lawyers and professional associations of lawyers play in promoting the rule of law, ensuring access to justice and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, in these challenging times when lawyers are increasingly subject to attacks, threats, harassment and intimidation, as well as unlawful obstruction or interference with the exercise of their legitimate professional activities, which is reprehensible.

The Convention was drafted taking into account the wide variety of legal systems and ways of organizing the legal profession in the Council of Europe member states.

The document emphasizes the importance of the existence of independent professional associations of lawyers in democratic countries for the proper protection of members of the legal profession from persecution and unlawful restrictions and harassment, as well as for ensuring equal access to the profession for all those who wish to become lawyers. The Convention pays particular attention to the confidentiality of the relationship between lawyer and client, which is crucial to the exercise of the legal profession and therefore deserves special protection from unlawful interference by the authorities, as such interference undermines the independence of the legal profession and the effective functioning of the rule of law.

Representatives of the Committee of Experts on the Protection of Lawyers, which was established in January 2022, worked on the text of the Convention and its report for 3 years. V. Gvozdiy was selected by the European Committee on Legal Cooperation to be a member of this Committee with the authority to represent Ukraine for the period of the Committee's work. He also held the position of Vice President of the Committee for the entire period of its work.

«As Vice President of the Committee, I was able to demonstrate that, despite everything, Ukraine has high standards of justice, ensures compliance with the rule of law and protection of human rights. Undoubtedly, the many years of active work of the Ukrainian Bar, in particular in the field of protection of the rights of lawyers and guarantees of the practice of law, really showed the international community that the legal regulation of the legal profession in Ukraine is based on European standards, - he said. – During the work on the Convention, all members of the Committee and observers really had the opportunity to make sure that Ukraine demonstrates its commitment to the rule of law and helps the bar self-government to ensure highly effective mechanisms for the protection of the legal profession».

According to the Vice President of UNBA, BCU, Ukraine's leadership in creating such a crucial document demonstrates the unconditional legal maturity of our country. «Even under the pressure of serious challenges in the context of Russian aggression, Ukraine demonstrates resilience and readiness for active actions in the process of implementing the provisions of the Convention for the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer, given the high degree of compliance of Ukrainian legislation on the Bar with the main international and European standards», - said V. Gvozdiy.

«The UNBA believes that given its proactive position on the path to membership in the European Union, Ukraine should definitely be among the countries that will be the first to ratify this Convention to confirm its status as a legal and democratic state», - he summarized.