Ensuring Rights of Victims Under the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine: Current Issues and Prospects

Abstract

Legal regulation and practical issues of ensuring of rights of victims under the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine are considered in the article. The criminal procedure legislation of Ukraine lacks legal regulation of the mandatory participation of a lawyer representing the victim in criminal proceedings. This situation puts the participants of proceedings in an unequal position. Victims during the trial and in court are unable to properly defend their legitimate interests due to lack of legal awareness. The authors also state that the participation of the victim’s representative in the conclusion of the conciliation agreement should be mandatory. The cases in which victims can receive free legal aid have been analyzed. It is proposed to define the cases of mandatory participation of the representative of victims in the current legislation of Ukraine.

Keywords

• victim
• legal representative
• free legal aid
• rights of victims
• conciliation agreement
• criminal proceedings