Already 10% of judges did not confirm compliance with the position held
As part of the judicial reform, qualification assessment of judges is continued in Ukraine. As of May 14, 2018, 10% of the judges who passed the qualification assessment did not confirm their compliance with the position held.
The Commission recalls that before the qualification assessment for the position compliance, the number of vacancies in local and appellate courts of Ukraine already made up 28% of the total number of judges of the country.
For the first group of thousand judges of local and appellate courts, the last stage of the qualification assessment – “Interview” – is currently underway. In general, from March 23 to May 14, 2018, the Commission, consisting of four separate panels, interviewed 694 judges. As a result, the following decisions were taken:
- 518 judges confirmed their compliance with the position held;
- 18 judges did not confirm compliance with their position (16 of them without the opinions of the Public Integrity Council);
- in the case of 2 judges, the assessment was terminated (in connection with the dismissal);
- with regards to 29 judges the assessment was stopped (due to open disciplinary cases in the High Council of Justice, as well as due to the presence of signs of disciplinary misconduct in the actions of a judge);
- regarding 122 judges there were announced a break;
- regarding 5 judges, the consideration of the issue was delayed.
According to the results of the examination of test and practical tasks, 37 judges did not pass the exam, therefore, decisions regarding the nonconformity with the position held were taken in relation to them.
Thus, as of 14 May 2018, 573 judges completed the qualification assessment procedure, namely: 518 judges (90%) will be recommended to the High Council of Justice for appointment to the corresponding positions; 55 judges (10%) of those who did not pass the examination or did not pass interview, will be recommended to dismiss. In general, during the assessment process of 999 judges, 28 judges wrote an application for dismissal.
In relation to 122 judges there have been announced a break due to the queries the Commission has regarding the information contained in the judicial dossier, as well as the opinions of the Public Integrity Council, which were submitted to the Commission with improper official registration, in particular, such opinions do not contain respective signatures of the members of the PIC who voted for their adoption. In order to take into account these opinions by the HQCJU, the Public Integrity Council has been given additional time to streamline the documentation.
We would like to kindly recall that the qualification assessment for compliance with the occupied position was introduced in the frameworks of judicial reform for all judges in Ukraine. For the first group of thousand judges, the assessment was announced on October 22, 2017, and lasts already for 7 months. Among the judges who passed the assessment, the first 95 judges, previously appointed for a term of 5 years and whose powers have expired, under its results have already been recommended to the High Council of Justice for the appointment to the positions and will begin restoring justice in the courts. The interviews with the rest of the judges from the first group will continue on May 15, 2018. The second group of judges currently has examinations with the further passing of psychological testing, judicial dossier examination and interviews with the members of the Commission.
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