Cases of the European Court of Human Rights Significant for European Integration of Ukraine: Levchuk v. Ukraine, Judgment of 3 September 2020 (Final on 3 December 2020): Case Commentary

Pavlo Pushkar

doi:10.18523/2617-2607.2020.6.73-76

Abstract

The decision of the Strasbourg Court in the Levchuk case is important from the point of view of Ukraine's European integration prospects: first, from the point of view of the judicial system's response to domestic violence; secondly, from the point of view of the basic legislation concerning the possibilities of the state's response to these manifestations and the available means of protection. Thirdly, this concerns the ratification of the Istanbul Convention (Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence), which entered into force on 1 August 2014, since Ukraine signed the Convention but has not yet done so. party in the absence of ratification of the Convention. It is clear that the future actions proposed by the Ukrainian authorities should be based on the established case law of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as on other international legal instruments, including the Istanbul Convention, which was signed but not ratified by Ukraine. Last but not least is the recognition of the Istanbul Convention as one of the key elements of the EU's foreign, and therefore domestic, policy as a legal mechanism for systematically combating domestic violence.

Highlights

As to the judgment itself, it does deal with larger issues of domestic violence in Ukraine, which have recently been in the focus of public debate, with wide-scale public discussions by the civil society groups and international human rights organisations
Even though the judgment depicts and focuses on the problem of domestic violence and judicial practice, in a narrow sense, it deals with issues pertaining to still outdated provisions of the Housing Code of Ukraine
The applicant requested to evict her former husband in 2016 from the flat they jointly occupied, having used the respective procedure under Article 116 of the Housing Code. As such this legal provision provided a remedy in a form of possibility to evict social housing tenants for systematic misconduct in relation to those with whom they co-habitated

Summary

Introduction

As to the judgment itself, it does deal with larger issues of domestic violence in Ukraine, which have recently been in the focus of public debate, with wide-scale public discussions by the civil society groups and international human rights organisations. As to the case itself, the applicant, Ms Levchuk, complained that the dismissal of an eviction claim against her ex-husband had exposed her and her children to the risk of domestic violence and harassment.

Results

Conclusion