When collaboration achieves its goal: rethinking judicial training with a focus on the latest teaching methods

On 2 April 2026, the Rector of the National School of Judges of Ukraine, Mykola Onishchuk, held a meeting with representatives of the OSCE Support Programme for Ukraine – the Head of the ‘Ensuring Respect for Human Rights in the Administration of Justice. Phase II, Anna Taranenko, and the Head of the Project Department for ‘Democratisation and Good Governance, Rule of Law and Human Rights’, Nataliia Stupnytska.

The discussion focused on the further development of educational initiatives in the field of human rights and the strengthening of modern approaches to judicial training.

The parties considered a number of important areas of cooperation, including the possibility of providing organisational support for the preparation and publication of a collection of abstracts from the round table ‘European integration processes and their impact on Ukraine’s criminal justice policy: theoretical and practical aspects’ for subsequent distribution among representatives of the judiciary and the academic community, and the conduct of a survey among judges and court staff to assess the current state of judicial training and identify needs for further professional development.

Discussions also covered the organisation of additional training sessions for trainers on gamification, digitalisation and modern adult learning methods, support for the development of an online course entitled ‘Evaluation of Judges by Civil Society Organisations’, as well as the provision of video recordings of the training sessions for subsequent use in the educational process.

The implementation of joint initiatives will contribute to improving the quality of judicial education, introducing innovative approaches to training, and strengthening human rights standards within Ukraine’s justice system.

Representing the National School of Judges of Ukraine at the meeting were the heads of structural units Natalia Akhtyrska, Tetiana Fulei and Viktoria Semenyuk.