The roundtable, which was held in a hybrid format, was attended by the Chairman of the Committee Serhii Ionushas, the Representative of the President of Ukraine in the VRU / Deputy Chairman of the Committee Halyna Mykhailiuk, the Deputy Chairmen of the Committee Maksym Pavliuk and Hryhorii Mamka, the Chairmen of the Subcommittees Oleksandr Danutsa and Vladlen Neklyudov, and Committee member Volodymyr Zakharchenko, Canadian experts on military justice, representatives of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, the Pass Ukraine Parliamentary Centre project, the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Military Law Enforcement Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Office of the Prosecutor General, the Security Service of Ukraine and the State Bureau of Investigation.
The panel discussions focused on:
- an overview of the Canadian military police system;
- the powers and functions of the Canadian Armed Forces Ombudsman;
- Canada’s experience in respecting the rights of servicemen and women when they are brought to justice;
- problems of functioning of military justice in Ukraine;
- problems of creating new bodies of the military justice system and military courts.
The Committee Chairman Serhii Ionushas noted that Canada is not only a strategic partner, but also a true friend for Ukraine, and the study of Canadian experience, which the Committee members had the opportunity to learn about in April during a working visit to Canada, allows us to analyse in detail the possible options for regulating military justice in Ukraine.
During the event, a presentation of the Green Paper on military justice in Ukraine, prepared by the Agency for Legislative Initiatives in cooperation with the Parliamentary Centre of Canada as part of the Parliamentary Accountability for the Security Sector in Ukraine (PASS Ukraine) project, was held.
The participants of the roundtable noted that military justice is an element of ensuring the combat capability of the armed forces of the state, and therefore this issue is extremely relevant in the realities of Ukraine.