Strategic litigation workshop in Kyiv, May 2009. Photo: Media Law Institute/IMS

Human rights and media lawyers were sensitized to the role they can potentially play in bringing about change in society through  court cases at a strategic litigation workshop in Kyiv

In a workshop held in Kyiv between 18 - 19 May 2009, International Media Support in cooperation with Article 19 and the Media Law Institute organized training in "Strategic Litigation in Protection of the Right to Freedom of Expression and Access to Information" for Ukrainian media lawyers and human rights advocates.

The training workshop aimed to improve the understanding of the nature and implementation methods of strategic litigation as well as the use of this tool in advocacy activities.

- We wanted to create awareness among Ukrainian media and human rights lawyers how to add a strategic component into their litigation work as a means to promote social change through litigation, says Antonina Cherevko, IMS programme officer based in Kyiv.

Social change via the court room

"Strategic litigation" is the legal term for changing court pratices and legal regulatory frameworks through court cases.  Basically  it refers to how the judicial system all over the world to a great extent rests on court practices whereby rulings by the courts codify rulings and  extent of legal frameworks hence the limits for legal practices for similar cases in the future. On the positive side, legal practics ensure consistency in rulings of cases which are similar thus making sure everyone is treated equally by the courts. The down-side may be, however, that legal pratice may hinder the courts in following the dynamics of ever-changing societies with the risk that courts may rule according to out-dated practices.

Ultimately, long-lived practices may stifle society and become a barrier to social or societal change, and so changing old practices is a way through which lawyers have an important role to play in society.

Content and structure combined

The training was conducted by Article 19 Law Director, Barbora Bukovska and Boyko Boev, a lawyer also from Article 19  as well as Taras Shevchenko, the director of the Media Law Institute in Kyiv The training programme included one day of lectures and discussions, while the second day was dedicated to group work and presentations.

The workshop focused on teaching the participants how to develop litigation strategies and how to transform individual cases into strategic litigation processes thus, bringing social change e.g. changes in court practice or amendments to the respective legislation. The event also covered a study of the international mechanisms for the protection of freedom of expression and access to information and involvement of these mechanisms in strategic litigation and advocacy campaigning.

Among the participants, Natalia Shpeg, lawyer, International Charitable Organization "Environment - People - Law": said:

- As a human rights lawyer I am involved in several litigation processes which potentially can be developed as strategic litigation; the training helped me to systematize my knowledge and experience and I liked very much that the overall strategic litigation topic was inter-connected with the issues of access to information and freedom of expression which constitute a very important part of my legal work.

Another participant, Maksym Lyashko, head of legal department, KP Media said:

- It was particularly interesting to learn about development of the strategic litigation plans and bringing litigation to the international level. I found the structural approach to litigation itself to be useful, and my understanding of the "strategic" component in litigation has been deepened".

More to come in ukraine

Roman Holovenko, lawyer at the NGO, Institute for Mass Information applauded the opportunity for attending a training session in Ukraine:

- It is very positive that such training was conducted in Ukraine and for Ukrainian lawyers as this topic is still new for us. Despite the fact that many NGO lawyers are involved in litigation at a regular basis, they rarely think of how it can be transformed into ta strategic tool to bring broader social change.

As a follow up to this activity IMS is planning to establish a strategic litigation fund to support strategic litigation for the protection of access to information and freedom of expression in Ukraine.

For more information please click her to write to Antonina Cherevko, IMS Programme Officer in Ukraine.