The Right To Respect For Private And Family Life For Individuals Sentenced To Life Imprisonment Aligns With The European Court Of Human Rights Practice Concerning Ukraine: Short-Term Trip Outside The Border Of The Penalty Institution

Abstract

The Constitutional Court of Ukraine has declared certain provisions of Part 1, Article 111 of the Criminal Executive Code unconstitutional due to their inapplicability to life-sentenced prisoners’ right to short-term leave from the penal colony. This decision represents an unexpected shift in Ukraine’s criminal justice policy, particularly at a time when the country faces an existential threat from russia’s full-scale invasion. Despite the fact that the institution of short-term leave for convicted persons from correctional facilities due to exceptional personal circumstances has not been overlooked in criminal executive law, the conducted analysis indicates that no scholars have questioned the constitutionality of Article 111 of the Criminal Executive Code of Ukraine. The reviewed works do not suggest that legal recognition of the right of life-sentenced prisoners to short-term leave from correctional facilities under exceptional personal circumstances has been considered a means of improving Ukraine’s criminal justice policy. The Constitutional Court of Ukraine bases its conclusion, first, on the fact that the right of life-sentenced prisoners to short-term leave to visit a gravely ill close relative or attend their funeral derives from an applicable international standard reflected in international instruments and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Second, agreeing with the complainant, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine holds that the legislative prohibition on short-term leave from a correctional facility for life-sentenced prisoners to visit a gravely ill close relative or attend their funeral contradicts human dignity as an integral component of the constitutional ‘right to respect for private life’. The research conducted in this article has not confirmed the existence of an international standard recognizing the right of life-sentenced prisoners to short-term leave from a correctional facility due to exceptional personal circumstances, nor the corresponding obligation of the state to ensure such a right. No such imperatives have been identified in the international legal instruments binding on Ukraine or in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The article also presents arguments demonstrating that the Constitutional Court of Ukraine’s interpretation of the concept of ‘human dignity’ contradicts the principles of law and the rules of formal logic.