EU and UNDP supported All-Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Moot Court: developing the potential of youth to fight corruption

On the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day, which is celebrated every year on 9 December, 40 law students improved their anti-corruption skills during the All-Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Moot Court

With the financial support of the European Union,The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine, in partnership with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) and the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine (EUACI), organised the All-Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Moot Court 2.0. The event took place on 1–3 December in Kyiv, gathering 40 students.

The All-Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Moot Court 2.0 included several stages of implementation. In the first stage, 107 teams from 52 higher educational institutions from all over Ukraine registered to participate. After solving the situational case, the top 10 were invited directly to the event, where the oral rounds of the competition consisted of conducting a search and a court hearing on appeals against the whistleblower’s dismissal happened. The two teams that best coped with the tasks advanced to the final stage, where a court debate awaited them at the main office of NABU.

According to the results of all rounds, the team of the Poltava Law Institute of the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University won, and its members got the main prize – an internship in the Main Division of NABU detectives. The second-placed team received an internship at the EUACI office as a reward, and the third-placed participants will be able to join the NABU 2023 Summer Anti-Corruption School outside the competition.

Frederik Coene, Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to Ukraine, emphasized the importance of activities that develop an anti-corruption culture among Ukrainian youth, providing unique opportunities for law students. “Significantly, the moot court became another unifying factor for our partners from NABU and NACP, whose leading specialists not only organised the process and evaluated teams but also shared their knowledge and experience with students,” he added. “Besides, such a comprehensive approach to conducting educational events creates preconditions for further employment of active youth in their profession because the winners had the opportunity to undergo internships in the most powerful anti-corruption bodies and initiatives.”

Jaco Cilliers, interim UNDP Resident Representative in Ukraine, noted that UNDP regularly supports youth projects, particularly those that develop young people’s potential in the anti-corruption field. “We are convinced that young people are the drivers of change in many areas of the development of Ukrainian society, so we gladly joined the organisation of the anti-corruption court. Increasing the transparency and accountability of Ukrainian institutions remains our priority,” he added. “It is also interesting that the list of ten finalists included three teams from higher educational institutions relocated from war-torn Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv oblasts, with which we have been cooperating for a long time.”

The All-Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Moot Court 2.0 was organized by NABU and NACP with the support of the UNDP in Ukraine within the UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme with the financial support of the European Union and with the support of EUACI, the leading anti-corruption support programme in Ukraine funded by the European Union, co-funded and implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.

Background

The All-Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Moot Court is the first educational project in Ukraine aimed at raising the awareness of young people about the problems of corruption, as well as improving theoretical knowledge and practical skills in criminal law, the process of investigating corruption crimes and considering cases in court.

This year, the All-Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Moot Court project received an award in the “Anti-Corruption and Open Governance” category from the independent interdisciplinary organisation World Justice Project within the framework of the World Justice Forum 2022 in The Hague, Netherlands, for its innovation and impact on solving the current problem of the rule of law and the fight against corruption.