Implementation of Ukraine's Positive Commitments of Article 3 of the 1950 Conventions during COVID-19 Pandemic: Statement of the Question of Criminal Liability

The article is devoted to the problem of Ukraine fulfilling its positive commitments under Art. 3 of the 1950 Convention during the COVID-19 pandemic. The work is based on developments of criminal law. In the light of the ECHR's practice, the connection between failure to comply with a conventional commitments and statement of the question of criminal liability has been demonstrated. The article is the first work in criminal law to understand Ukraine's compliance with the prohibition of ill-treatment and punishment against the background of the spread of COVID-19. The study has analyzed specific cases that Ukraine was a participant of before and during the pandemic coronavirus infection. Substantially, the latter are related to Ukraine providing the proper conditions for COVID-19 patients to receive treatment at national healthcare facilities and providing professional medical care. Media reports were taken as the source of information for the authors. Taking into account the lack of validity of the facts covered by the media, the authors confined themselves to raising critical questions regarding Ukraine's fulfillment of positive obligations under Art. 3 of the Convention in the cases analyzed. The authors emphasize on the inadmissibility of the baseless conclusions that Ukraine did not comply with the conventional obligations (in view of the deterministic link between the statement of the violation of the Convention and the statement of question of the basis of the strictest liability). The study used national and international regulations, ECHR practices, Information Documents Council of Europe in the framework of the COVID-19 sanitary crisis, Statement of principles relating to the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty in the context of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, enforcement acts and statistics of national authorities. The authors have identified the subject of further scientific research and stated their readiness to continue the investigation of the criminal-legal problems of fulfillment of positive obligations by Ukraine under Art. 3 of the COVID-19 Pandemic Convention