On 26 October 2023, Professor Louise Mallinder, Deputy Director of the Mitchell Institute, and Mitchell Institute Fellows, Professor Luke Moffett and Dr Cheryl Lawther delivered workshops to a visiting delegation of three senior Ukrainian judges, one from the Supreme Court of Ukraine and one each from the District Courts of Kharkiv and Dnipro.

The event was part of a study visit by the Ukrainian judges to Ireland and Northern Ireland.

It was held in collaboration with the QUB School of Law, the European Union Assistance Mission to Ukraine, and Irish Rule of Law International (IRLI) and is part of a longer standing collaboration between Irish Rule of Law International and the Mitchell Institute relating to IRLI’s transitional justice programmes.

The workshops with the Ukrainian judges drew on the Institute Fellows’ expertise to engage in a dialogue with the judges on themes of reparations, transitional justice, and victims and victimhood and focused in particular on experiences in Northern Ireland during and after the Troubles.

Commenting on the workshop, Professor Mallinder said:

“Between the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2021 and early November 2023, over 111,576 war crimes have been documented by Ukrainian authorities. This context raises enormous challenges for pursuing widespread prosecutions during armed conflict while also meeting victims’ needs for physical and psychological support and other forms of reparations. These workshops provided important opportunities to learn from Northern Ireland’s experiences of pursuing truth and accountability during and after the Troubles and to reflect on the complex needs of victims of serious human rights violations.

We were delighted to be able to host these esteemed judges at Queen’s University Belfast as part of our ongoing collaboration with Irish Rule of Law International and we look forward sustaining this relationship in the future.”