Overview of the results of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine in July 2025

OVERVIEW OF THE RESULTS

OF THE HIGH QUALIFICATION COMMISSION OF JUDGES OF UKRAINE

                                             June 2025

 

 

 

Procedures of the judicial career

Selection for the position of a local court judge

The High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine has completed the first stage of the qualification exam – testing on the history of Ukrainian statehood, which lasted from 15 to 24 July 2025.

I. Composition of participants admitted to the first stage of the qualification exam

A total of 8,432 people were admitted to the test on the history of Ukrainian statehood:

1.    local courts judges – 562:

administrative courts judges – 18;

commercial courts judges – 14;

general courts judges – 530;

2.    candidates for the position of judge – 7,870:

court staff – 2,980;

Prosecutor’s Office employees – 2,004;

attorneys – 868;

military personnel – 280;

representatives of other professions – 1,738.

Gender composition of participants admitted to the first stage of the qualification exam (testing on the history of Ukrainian statehood)

№ z/p	Place of work	Women (persons)	Men (persons)	TOTAL
1	Local courts judges	314	248	562
1.1	Administrative courts judges	12	6	18
1.2	Commercial courts judges	5	9	14
1.3	General courts judges	297	233	530
2	Candidates for the position of a judge	4 111	3 759	7 870
2.1	Court staff	2 065	915	2 980
2.2	Prosecutor Office’s employees	756	1 248	2 004
2.3	Attorneys	416	452	868
2.4	Military personnel	15	265	280
2.5	Representatives of other professions	859	879	1 738
TOTAL		4 425	4 007	8 432

The overall gender balance of test participants remains relatively even:

• women — 52%,

• men — 48%.

Women predominate among selection participants: they account for 56% of judges and 52% of candidates.

The highest rate of female participation is among court staff — 69%; the highest percentage of men is among military personnel (95%) and Prosecutor’s Office employees (62%).

There is a relative gender balance in the categories of lawyers and representatives of other professions.

Overall, the results indicate an adequate level of gender representation in the selection process, as well as the preservation of professional characteristics in the structure of participants by gender.

Age composition of participants admitted to the first stage of the qualification exam (testing on the history of Ukrainian statehood).

* age at the time of submitting documents for participation in the selection process
№ z/p	Place of work	From 30 to 35 years old (persons*)	From 36 to 40 years old (persons*)	41 years and older (persons*)	TOTAL
1	Local courts judges	0	186	376	562
1.1	Administrative courts judges	0	6	12	18
1.2	Commercial courts judges	0	6	8	14
1.3	General courts judges	0	174	356	530
2	Candidates for the position of a judge	3 251	2 636	1 983	7 870
2.1	Court staff	1 285	1 057	638	2 980
2.2	Prosecutor Office’s employees	983	614	407	2 004
2.3	Attorneys	274	288	306	868
2.4	Military personnel	92	89	99	280
2.5	Representatives of other professions	617	588	533	1 738
TOTAL		3 251	2 822	2 359	8 432

Local court judges who intend to be transferred to another local court are predominantly over 40 years of age (67%), with none under 36 years of age. This dynamic is justified by the long hiatus in the possibility of exercising a judge’s right to transfer to another local court.

Among candidates for the position of judge, almost half (41%) are aged 30–35, and 75% of candidates are younger than 41.

Court and Prosecutor’s Office staff are the youngest categories: 43% and 49% are aged 30–35, respectively.

Attorneys, military personnel and other professions have a relatively even distribution of age groups.

In general, the selection process is attractive to people under 40, which suggests a gradual rejuvenation of the judiciary.

The city of Kyiv is the clear leader in terms of the number of people wishing to become judges, accounting for almost 15% of all participants.

The largest number of candidates for the position of judge came from Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Odesa regions, accounting for over 52% of the total number of candidates.

II. Success rate in passing the first stage of the qualification exam

493 people, or 6% of the total number of participants, did not show up for the test:

1) local courts judges – 96 people, or 17% of the total number of people in this group;

- administrative courts judges – 4 persons, or 22% of the total number of persons in this group;

- commercial courts judges – 5 persons, or 36% of the total number of persons in this group;

- general courts judges – 87 persons, or 16% of the total number of persons in this group;

2) candidates for the position of judge – 397 persons, or 5% of the total number of persons in this group;

- court staff – 62 persons, or 2% of the total number of persons in this group;

- Prosecutor’s Office employees – 171 persons, or 9% of the total number of persons in this group;

- attorneys – 59 persons, or 7% of the total number of persons in this group;

- representatives of other professions – 95 persons, or 5% of the total number of persons in this group;

- military personnel – 10 persons, or 4% of the total number of persons in this group.

One candidate for the position of judge (prosecutor’s office employees group) withdrew during the test.

The minimum passing score for the test is 26 points.

The maximum score for the test is 40 points.

Success rate of the first stage of the qualification exam “Testing of knowledge on the history of Ukrainian statehood”
No.	Place of work	25 or less points		from 26 to 30 points		from 31 to 35 points		from 36 to 40 points		TOTAL
		persons	%*	persons	%*	persons	%*	persons	%*	persons	%*
1.	Local courts judges	2	0,4%	6	1,3%	24	5,2%	434	93,1%	466	100,0%
1.1.	Judges of administrative courts	0	0,0%	0	0,0%	0	0,0%	14	100,0%	14	3,0%
1.2.	Judges of commercial courts	0	0,0%	1	11,1%	2	22,2%	6	66,7%	9	1,9%
1.3.	Judges of general courts	2	0,5%	5	1,1%	22	5,0%	414	93,5%	443	95,1%
2.	Candidates for the position of judge	130	1,7%	233	3,1%	754	10,1%	6356	85,1%	7473	100,0%
2.1.	Court staff	45	1,5%	81	2,8%	247	8,5%	2545	87,2%	2918	39,0%
2.2.	Prosecutor’s Office employees	13	0,7%	34	1,9%	166	9,1%	1620	88,4%	1833	24,5%
2.3.	Attorneys	24	3,0%	31	3,8%	98	12,1%	656	81,1%	809	10,8%
2.4.	Military personnel	10	3,7%	12	4,4%	33	12,2%	215	79,6%	270	3,6%
2.5.	Representatives of other professions	38	2,3%	75	4,6%	210	12,8%	1320	80,3%	1643	22,0%
TOTAL		132	1,7%	239	3,0%	778	9,8%	6790	85,5%	7939	100,0%

In accordance with the decision of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine dated May 12, 2025 No. 105/zp-25, participants who scored at least the minimum allowable score during the first stage are admitted to the second stage of the qualification exam, in the amount of no more than 7,200 persons. If two or more candidates for the position of judge and judges received the same lowest passing score at the first stage of the qualification exam, all such candidates for the position of judge and judges are admitted to the second stage of the qualification exam.

According to the results of the first stage of the qualification exam, the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine on July 25, 2025 admitted 7,239 persons to the second stage.

III. Composition of participants admitted to the second stage of the qualification exam (testing of general knowledge in the field of law and court specialisations)

A total of 7,239 persons were admitted to testing of general knowledge in the field of law and court specialisations:

1) by the composition of the participants:

a) judges of local courts – 454:

- judges of administrative courts – 14;

- judges of commercial courts – 7;

- judges of general courts – 433;

b) candidates for the position of judge – 6,785:

- court staff – 2,687;

- Prosecutor’s Office employees – 1,717;

- attorneys – 710;

- representatives of other professions – 1,441;

- military personnel – 230.

2) by specialisation:

 administrative specialisation – 2,632 persons;

commercial specialisation – 2,237 persons;

general specialisation – 6,754 persons;

3) according to the intentions of the participants:

persons who intend to take the exam exclusively in administrative specialisation – 177;

persons who intend to take the exam exclusively in commercial specialisation – 146;

persons who intend to take the exam exclusively in general specialisation – 3,733;

persons who intend to take the exam in administrative and commercial specialisations – 162;

persons who intend to take the exam in administrative and general specialisations – 1,092;

persons who intend to take the exam in commercial and general specialisations – 728;

persons who intend to take the exam in all specialisations – 1201.

Gender composition of participants admitted to the second stage of the qualification exam (testing of general knowledge in the field of law and court specialisations)

No	Place of work	Women		Men		TOTAL
		persons	%*	persons	%*	persons	%*
1.	Local courts judges	250	55%	204	45%	454	100%
1.1.	Judges of administrative courts	9	64%	5	36%	14	3%
1.2.	Judges of commercial courts	2	29%	5	71%	7	2%
1.3.	Judges of general courts	239	55%	194	45%	433	95%
2.	Candidates for the position of judge	3601	53%	3184	47%	6785	100%
2.1.	Court staff	1861	69%	826	31%	2687	40%
2.2.	Prosecutor’s Office employees	653	38%	1064	62%	1717	25%
2.3.	Attorneys	357	50%	353	50%	710	10%
2.4.	Military personnel	12	5%	218	95%	230	3%
2.5.	Representatives of other professions	718	50%	723	50%	1441	21%
TOTAL		3851	53%	3388	47%	7239	100%

The overall gender balance of participants admitted to the second stage of the qualification exam remains relatively even:

women — 3,851 persons, or 53% of the total number of participants;

men — 3,388 persons, or 47% of the total number of participants.

The highest rate of female participation was recorded among court staff — 69%; the highest percentage of men — among prosecutors (62%) and military personnel (95%).

There is a relative gender balance in the categories of attorneys and representatives of other professions.

Overall, the results indicate an appropriate level of gender representation in the selection procedure, as well as the preservation of professional characteristics in the structure of participants by gender.

Age composition of participants admitted to the second stage of the qualification exam (testing general knowledge in the field of law and court specialisations)

* age at the time of submitting documents for participation in the selection
No	Place of work	From 30 to 35 years old		From 36 to 40 years old		41 years and older		TOTAL
		persons*	%*	persons*	%*	persons*	%*	persons*	%*
1.	Local court judges	0	0%	157	35%	297	65%	454	100%
1.1.	Judges of administrative courts	0	0%	6	43%	8	57%	14	3%
1.2.	Judges of commercial courts	0	0%	4	57%	3	43%	7	2%
1.3.	Judges of general courts	0	0%	147	34%	286	66%	433	95%
2.	Candidates for the position of judge	2864	42%	2256	33%	1665	25%	6785	100%
2.1.	Court staff	1174	44%	956	36%	557	21%	2687	40%
2.2.	Prosecutor’s Office employees	858	50%	521	30%	338	20%	1717	25%
2.3.	Attorneys	235	33%	236	33%	239	34%	710	10%
2.4.	Military personnel	75	33%	73	32%	82	36%	230	3%
2.5.	Representatives of other professions	522	36%	470	33%	449	31%	1441	21%
TOTAL		2864	40%	2413	33%	1962	27%	7239	100%

Local court judges who intend to be transferred to another local court are mostly over 40 years old (64%), there are no judges younger than 36 years old among them.

Among candidates for the position of judge, 75% are younger than 41 years old.

Employees of the courts and Prosecutor’s Office are the youngest categories: aged 30–35 — 40% and 47%, respectively.

Attorneyes, military personnel and other professions have a relatively even distribution of age groups.

[more]

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Competition to the appellate courts

General statistics of the competition to the appellate courts

 

By specialisations
Stage	Administrative	Commercial	Criminal	Civil	TOTAL
Applied with applications (1 candidate did not choose a specialisation)	191	185	912	787	2076
Admitted to the competition and qualification evaluation	173	160	821	687	1841
Successfully passed a test of knowledge in the field of law and in the specialisation of the relevant court	132	134	703	619	1588
Successfully passed the cognitive abilities test	105	98	507	410	1120
Successfully completed practical assignment	67	83	451	255	856

 

In July, interviews were conducted and the results of the qualification assessment of candidates for positions as judges of administrative courts of appeal and commercial courts of appeal were determined:

1. 1. administrative appellate courts:

 

number of interviews conducted – 5;

number of candidates in respect of whom the PIC submitted conclusions – 3;

number of candidates who confirmed their ability to administer justice

in the respective court – 18;

number of candidates whose ability to administer justice in the respective court has been submitted for consideration by the Commission in plenary – 1;

number of candidates who did not confirm their ability to administer justice in the respective court – 3.

1. 2. commercial appellate courts:

number of interviews conducted –38;

number of candidates in respect of whom the PIC submitted conclusions – 10;

number of candidates who have confirmed their ability to administer justice in the relevant court – 31;

number of candidates whose ability to administer justice in the respective court has been submitted for consideration by the Commission in plenary – 11;

number of candidates who did not confirm their ability to administer justice in the respective court – 8;

It remains to interview 4 candidates for the positions of judges of commercial courts of appeal, all candidates for the positions of judges of administrative courts of appeal have been interviewed. 

 

Zhytomyr Court of Appeal

Interviews have begun with candidates who applied to participate in the first stage of the competition for vacant positions of judges at the Zhytomyr Court of Appeal:

number of interviews – 13;

number of candidates for whom conclusions have been received from the PIC – 14;

number of candidates who have confirmed their ability to administer justice in the relevant court – 5;

number of candidates whose ability to administer justice in the relevant court has been submitted for consideration by the plenary session of the Commission – 4;

number of candidates who did not confirm their ability to administer justice in the relevant court – 4.

 

Interviews with 16 candidates for the positions of judges of the Zhytomyr Court of Appeal remain to be conducted.

 

Sumy Court of Appeal

Interviews have begun with candidates who applied to participate in the first stage of the competition for vacant judge positions at the Sumy Court of Appeal:

number of interviews – 14;

number of candidates for whom conclusions have been received from the PIC – 11;

number of candidates who have confirmed their ability to administer justice in the relevant court – 5;

number of candidates whose ability to administer justice in the relevant court has been submitted for consideration by the plenary session of the Commission – 5;

number of candidates who did not confirm their ability to administer justice in the relevant court – 4.

Interviews remain to be conducted with 13 candidates for the positions of judges at the Sumy Court of Appeal.

 

The acceptance of documents for candidates for the positions of judges at the Dnipro, Kyiv, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, and Kharkiv Courts of Appeal has been announced.

 

Name of the court	Number of vacant judicial positions	Number of submitted applications
Dnipro court of appeal	23	43
Kyiv court of appeal	45	93
Lviv court of appeal	28	55
Mykolaiv court of appeal	21	23
Odesa court of appeal	23	50
Kharkiv court of appeal	47	62
TOTAL	187	326

 

 

Secondments                                      

Six notifications from the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine on secondments were received.

The Commission considered the issues of secondments of judges:

• To 16 courts due to excessive judicial workload or impossibility of administration of justice;
• From 5 courts due to changes in the territorial jurisdiction of court cases.

The issue of early termination of judges’ secondments and their simultaneous secondments was considered in respect of 5 judges.

The issue of early termination of the secondment of judges and their simultaneous secondment in relation to 3 judges was considered.

It was recommended that judges be seconded to the following courts:

• • Brovarskyi City-Raion Court of Kyiv Oblast (1 judge);
  • Irpin Town Court of Kyiv Oblast (1 judge);
  • Kyiv-Sviatoshyn Raion Court of Kyiv Oblast (1 judge);
  • Kyivskyi District Court of Odesa City (1  judge);
  • Petropavlivskyi District Court of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (1 judge);
  • Pokrovskyi Raion Court of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (4 judges);
  • Saksahanskyi District Court of Kryvyi Rih City (1 judge);
  • Smilianskyi City-Raion Court of Cherkasy Oblast (1 judge);
  • Sobornyi District Court of Dnipro City (2 judges);
  • Umanskyi City-Raion Court of Cherkasy Oblast (1 judge);
  • Tsentralno-Miskyi District Court of Kryvyi Rih City (1 judge);
  • Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Dnipro City (1 judge);
  • Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv City  (3 judges).

 

 

 

Qualification evaluation  

of the judge’s suitability for the position held and in connection with the imposition of disciplinary sanctions

Interview was conducted with one judge:

Liubov Babicheva, a judge of Svativskyi Raion Court of Luhansk Oblast, is suitable for the position held.

The evaluation of 619 judges was terminated.

 

Important decisions of the Commission

The programmes for the qualification exam stages and the taxonomic characteristics of anonymous tests within the framework of the qualification assessment of candidates for the position of judge of the High Anti-Corruption Court and its Appeals Chamber have been approved.

[more]

 

The acceptance of documents for participation in the competition for 23 vacant positions of judges in the High Anti-Corruption Court has begun.

The deadline for submitting documents is August 06, 2025.

[more]

 

 

Data on the accounting of judges’ positions

Data on creation of 14 new vacant judicial positions have been included to the record:

In local courts – 11:

• Saksahanskyi District Court of Kryvyi Rih  (at his own request [1]);
• Verkhniodniprovskyi Raion Court of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (paragraph 3 of part sixth of Article 126 of the Constitution of Ukraine [1]);
• Korolovskyi District Court of Zhytomyr City (resignation [1]);
• Mukachivskyi City-Raion Court of Transcarpathian Oblast (paragraph 3 of part sixth of Article 126 of the Constitution of Ukraine [1]);
• Poltavskyi Raion Court of Poltava Oblast (resignation [1]);
• Derhachivskyi Raion Court of Kharkiv Oblast (resignation [1]);
• Horodyshchenskyi Raion Court of Cherkasy Oblast (resignation [1]);
• Chernihivskyi Raion Court of Chernihiv Oblast (resignation [1]);
• Commercial Court of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast ( at his own request[1]);
• Mykolayiv Circuit Administrative Court (resignation [1]);
• Cherkasy Circuit Administrative Court (at his own request [1]);

In appellate courts – 3:

• Northern Commercial Court of Appeal (paragraph 3 of part sixth of Article 126 of the Constitution of Ukraine [1]);
• Northern -Western Commercial Court of Appeal (resignation [1]);
• Southern -Western Commercial Court of Appeal (resignation [1]);

[more] – in Ukrainian

 

 

Sessions

39 sessions were held, of which:

• in plenary composition – 14;
• in chamber composition – 25;
• in Panel composition – 17.

[more] – in Ukrainian

 

212 decisions of the Commission were adopted, of which:

• on selection and appointment of judges – 47;
• on transfer (secondment) of judges – 28;
• on qualification evaluation of judges – 10;
• regarding the verification of declarations of family ties and integrity of judges (candidates for judicial positions) – 5;
• on conduction of competition for the positions of appellate courts judges – 104;
• on general issues – 18.

 

[more] – in Ukrainian

 

 

 

Participation in the events

July 02, 2025 – participation in the international conference “Judicial Governance in Ukraine and Europe: Current Challenges and Prospects for Reform”, organized by the Luxembourg Centre for European Law (LCEL) of the University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg City, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

July 07–09, 2025 – participation in the plenary meeting of the Anti-Corruption Network for Eastern Europe and Central Asia of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris, French Republic.

July 17, 2025 – participation in the meeting of the Steering Committee of the European Union Project “Pravo-Justice”, Kyiv, Ukraine.

July 21, 2025 – participation in the presentation of the Green Paper on the functioning of patronage and civil service within the judiciary of Ukraine, organized by the Supreme Court, Kyiv, Ukraine.

July 21, 2025 – participation in an online meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine regarding monitoring the implementation of the Ukraine Plan measures.

July 24, 2025 – participation in an online meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and the European Commission regarding monitoring the implementation of the Ukraine Plan measures.

July 24, 2025 – participation in an online meeting with representatives of the Venice Commission.

July 31, 2025 – participation in a meeting chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Mr. Taras Kachka, regarding the progress in implementing the tasks of Cluster 1 “Fundamentals of the EU Accession Process” and Cluster 6 “External Relations” of the Action Plan for the implementation of the European Commission’s recommendations, presented in the 2024 EU Enlargement Package Progress Report on Ukraine, approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 300-r dated March 28, 2025, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Litigation

The Commission’s interests were represented in 52 hearings of the Supreme Court.

Court decisions upholding the Commission’s position:

Case No. 990/263/25 – Claim filed by Bondarets D.I. seeking to declare unlawful and annul a decision, and to compel the performance of certain actions (selection, admission).

Case No. 990/406/24 – Claim filed by Bereza M.V. seeking to declare the inaction of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine unlawful, namely the failure to fulfill its obligation to regularly update the dataset “Register of Declarations of Family Ties and Integrity” for the years 2023–2024 in open data format, as required by Article 10-1 of the Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public Information” and the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 835 dated October 21, 2015, and to compel the Commission to update on its official website and on the webpage of the Unified State Web Portal of Open Data the dataset “Register of Declarations of Family Ties and Integrity” for 2023–2024 in accordance with the requirements of the aforementioned resolution.

The claimant’s appeal was dismissed, and the decision of the Administrative Cassation Court of the Supreme Court dated March 12, 2025, was upheld.

Document flow

 Documents were processed:

3583.  – incoming documents;

4084.  – outgoing documents.

 

4084 inquiries and appeals were reviewed:

4  lawyer’s requests;

172  requests for information;

71 appeals;

3837 other inquiries.

 

Assistance in the implementation of judicial career procedures will be gladly provided, and proposals for improving Commission’s work will be considered!

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