Ukrainians are claiming substantial sums from the state through the European Court of Human Rights

Ukraine is dutifully paying compensation to plaintiffs following decisions by the European Court of Human Rights. In 2008, the country paid five million hryvnias in such compensation to complainants. This was announced in an interview with ‘Deutsche Welle’ by Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine Valeriya Lutkovska.

Ukrainians often file complaints with the European Court of Human Rights. In most cases, the applicant asks for ‘just satisfaction’ to be awarded to them, Lutkovska emphasises. The amount varies from 600 to two and a half million dollars. This is currently the largest amount of compensation that the country must pay by the end of December to an international company that won a case against Ukraine in the European Court, says Valeriya Lutkovska. “For the payment of ‘just satisfaction’ awards, 26 million hryvnias were earmarked in the 2008 budget. Now, the decision in the ‘Reget v. Ukraine’ case has come into effect, and for this case, we have to pay a fairly large sum. We currently have an issue with converting hryvnias into foreign currency. Because of the established penalty interest, Ukraine would very much not like to miss the payment deadlines.” The Deputy Minister of Justice noted that most often, Ukrainians complain to the European Court of Human Rights about the non-enforcement of national court decisions.