Commission hosted the meeting with the representatives of the USAID Office of Democracy and Governance and the USAID “New Justice” Program
On 14 March 2018, the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine hosted the working meeting with the Deputy Director of the USAID Democracy and Governance Office Mr. Daniel Ryan, the USAID Democracy and Governance Project Management Specialist Mr. Oleksandr Piskun, the Chief of Party of the USAID “New Justice” Program Mr. Devid Vaughn and the Deputy Chief of Party of the Program Ms. Nataliya Petrova.
The discussion focused on considering the recommendations of the USAID “New Justice” Program presented to the Commission on the results of the conference “Competition to the New Supreme Court: Best Practices, Lessons Learned, and Prospects”, which took place on 24-25 October 2017. In particular, the participants talked about the procedure of applying for the competition, the candidates’ admission, the qualification assessment and testing procedures, the exam administration, the psychological testing. Also, the subject of the debate was the discussion of the HQCJ and HCJ mandate regarding the assessment and decision making, the necessary amendments to the current legislation of Ukraine.
Mr. Sergii Koziakov stressed that the Commission highly appreciated the assistance provided by the “New Justice” Program and emphasized the Commission’s plans to cooperate with the Program in order to further improve the procedures in line with international standards and best international practices.
The parties agreed to continue to coordinate their joint efforts to achieve the defined goals.
At the event the Commission was represented by the member of the Qualification Chamber Mr. Andriy Vasylenko, the Head of the Secretariat Ms. Olena Ponomarenko, the Director of Judicial Career Department of the Secretariat Mr. Taras Neshyk and the Deputy Head of the International Cooperation Division of the Secretariat Ms. Halyna Terpiak.
Reference:
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) “New Justice” Program started its work in Ukraine in October 2016.
The purpose of the Program is to support the judiciary, Government, Parliament, Civil Society and people of Ukraine in the implementation of judicial reform given the constitutional amendments of 2016 and The Ukraine Judiciary Development Strategy 2015-2020.
The Program builds on the achievements of previous USAID projects “Ukraine: Rule of Law” and “Fair Justice” and uses their achievements for coordination of close cooperation with Ukrainian partners, USAID and US Government projects and other projects of international donor organizations in Ukraine.
