Kuzmenko Volodymyr, Kuzmenko Hanna. Problems of protecting rights of violent crimes victims: aspects of the harmonization process of Ukrainian law with EU law
This study is dedicated to the research on harmonization problems of Ukrainian legislation with EU law in the field of ensuring victims of violent crimes rights. The historical prerequisites and the current state of development of European legislation in the field of ensuring organizational, legal and judicial mechanisms for the protection of the rights of victims of violent crimes are determined. These results are used to clarify and outline the problems in the same field in Ukraine through comparative legal methods and qualitative thematic analysis. Author concluded that the criminal procedural norms of Ukrainian law are not detailed enough in the sphere of protecting victims of violent crimes and are insufficient comparing to EU standards. Taking into consideration that Ukraine has enshrined on the constitutional level its strategic movement towards European Union and in 2022 got candidate to EU status and obligations to reform its legal system, the authors emphasize the necessity of implementing EU standards for rights of victims of violent crimes protection from revenge of perpetrators, secondary victimization and ensuring the right to compensation through supplementing Ukrainian legislation with norms and standards from the EU legal framework.
The authors also stress on negative consequences of Russian intervention, which strongly affected the victims of violent crimes rights field, not only by increasing amounts of violent crimes and victims but also indirectly forcing to change the focus of attention of Ukrainian legislators and scholars on developing and ensuring legal mechanisms for the protection and compensation of victims of war crimes, while paying less attention to the problems of harmonization of Ukrainian legislation with EU standards in the field of protection of the rights of victims of violent crimes.
