Illia Chernohorenko speaks at ECHR roundtable in Westminster

DPhil candidate Illia Chernohorenko was invited to speak at an invite-only private roundtable hosted by the Conservative party in Westminster to discuss the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The roundtable offered Conservative MPs and Peers the chance to hear from leading experts about the potential impacts of the UK leaving the Convention.

Illia’s invitation stemmed from a recent article in the Times ‘The ECHR remains a beacon for the people of Ukraine and Europe’ which he co-authored with former Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland.  In the article the authors argue that if the UK were to withdraw from the ECHR it would negatively impact the safeguarding of human rights in the EU and also, more urgently, in Ukraine.

As a former Director-General for the Rule of Law Directorate at the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine (2018-19) and later an advisor to the President of Ukraine within the dedicated commission on legal reform (2019-20), a Ukrainian citizen and an expert in international human rights law, Illia is uniquely placed to offer a perspective that is grounded in legal practise, informed by experience in the political sphere, and comes from a place of personal understanding of his country.

Illia presented his views to the roundtable that if the UK were to withdraw from the ECHR it would severely affect the status of the UK in the eyes of the Ukrainian government and impact Ukraine’s accession agreement to join the EU.

Ukraine’s recovery plan relies on the ECHR framework and currently the UK is among most legitimate partners advising Ukraine on how to restructure its justice system. Illia was involved in drafting the recovery plan, under the auspices of the National Recovery Council in Ukraine, advising on the justice system.

His experience of the roundtable was a positive one. He felt that the audience was engaged and interested, and that support for Ukraine in the second year of the war is still strong. He says that his motivation to speak at the event was very clear, he wants to be useful to his country and believes strongly that the UK’s withdrawal from the ECHR will impact the opinion of the UK in Ukraine. He feels that the war is not just a war against Russia but a war defending the concept of democracy and the rule of law.

From the founding of the Magna Carta to the drafting of the ECHR by British lawyers, Illia says that the convention is rooted in British law and legal frameworks. He said:

Withdrawing from the ECHR for the UK would be like a great artist defacing their own masterpiece.

Illia graduated with a Master’s degrees in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford (New College, 2021), and in International Dispute Resolution from Queen Mary University of London (Chevening Scholar, 2017), as well as completing a visiting fellowship at the University of Bristol (2022-2023).

Since October 2023, Illia has been reading for a DPhil in Law, his second doctorate, focusing on the repurposing of assets affiliated with aggressor states as a means of redress for human rights violations.