The process of signing the Convention on the protection of the profession of advocate has begun

Ukraine's signing of the Convention on the protection of the profession of advocate, which was adopted by the Council of Europe on March 12, 2025, has been delayed due to the lack of an official translation. However, the Minister of Justice has promised to submit the document to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for further approval.

These are the results of the consideration of the issue at today's meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on legal policy, which took place on August 28. They were reported by the chairman of the subcommittee on political reform and constitutional law Maksym Dyrdin who initiated the discussion of the Convention and the inclusion of the issue on the agenda.

It is known that Minister of Justice German Galushchenko was invited to the meeting to hear the official position on the signing and ratification of the Convention and to answer questions about why this process is still in its initial stages.

He said that the signing and ratification of the Convention by the Ministry of Justice is supported, but there are still issues that need to be worked out. Among them is the lack of an official translation of the document. At the same time, G. Galushchenko undertook to submit an unofficial translation of the Convention to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs within a week for further approval (the UNBA made an unofficial translation of the Convention and published the text in Ukrainian on March 13, the day after the document was adopted by the Council of Europe).

«In the future, our work will consist of interacting with the Ministry of Justice so that the ministry initiates a proposal to the Cabinet of Ministers to delegate a representative from Ukraine to sign this Convention, - said M. Dyrdin. - Thus, the meeting yielded its first concrete result, and I sincerely hope that the process will move forward more quickly in the future».

We would like to remind you that the problems of slowing down the process of signing and ratifying the first international treaty aimed at protecting the profession of advocate were discussed on August 20 at a working meeting in parliament. The event was attended by members of parliament, representatives of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ukrainian National Bar Association. The MPs emphasized that parliament is ready to support the signing and ratification of the document, as it does not contradict current legislation and strengthens the guarantees of the independence of advocacy. In their opinion, the implementation of the Convention should be a positive signal to international partners and will enhance the prestige of the state.