Conference “Effective Delivery of Justice as a Means to Increase Public Trust and Confidence in the Judiciary” has begun
On 19 April 2018, the conference “Effective Delivery of Justice as a Means to Increase Public Trust and Confidence in the Judiciary”, attended by members of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine and representatives of the Commission’s Secretariat, began.
The event was organized by the USAID “New Justice” Program jointly with the High Council of Justice, the Council of Judges of Ukraine and the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine.
The conference aims to identify the key elements that make up public perception of the judiciary and how they impact the level of public trust and confidence; to emphasize the importance of communicating the progress in promoting the judicial reform; to discuss means of establishing a constructive dialogue between courts and the media and communication between courts and the public; to develop recommendations and next steps for communicating the judicial reform and advancing the use of modern communication strategies and tools in promoting greater public trust and confidence in the judiciary.
Mr. David Vaughn, Chief of Party of the USAID “New Justice” Program, Mr. Ihor Benedysiuk, Chairman of the High Council of Justice, Mr. Thomas White, Director of the Office of Democracy and Governance at USAID Mission to Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova, took the floor.
Ms. Valentyna Danishevska, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, made a presentation titled “Public Trust and Perception of the Judiciary”, stressing that the judiciary no longer talked about restoring confidence in the court, but was talking about its promoting. “We want to understand people better, how they see the judicial system. And we want people to understand us too. Annually, judges are considering 3 million cases and only 15% are being challenged. So, people accept most judgments”, noted the Chief Justice. Ms. Valentyna Danishevska also outlined four key areas of promoting public trust in the court: court decisions, judges’ behavior, administration of court proceedings, and communications with the society. “We must be the first to talk about our decisions. And this is what we need to learn”, stressed the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
The first session of the conference was devoted to discussing factors that impacted the level of public trust in the judiciary. Mr. Roman Kuibida, Deputy Head of the Centre of Policy and Legal Reform, presented the results of the first trial monitoring program in Ukraine and Mr. Ben Wilson, Director of Communications and Public Affairs at Goldsmiths, University of London, Former Head of Communications at the UK Supreme Court, shared strategies used to manage the reputation of the UK Supreme Court. Mr. Leslie Moran, Professor of Law of the University of London, Birkbeck School of Law, familiarized the participants with background information about the Judicial Images network in respect to the relationship between the justice system and visual media and how visual culture impacted public trust and confidence in the judiciary. Ms. Victoria Pratt, Professor at the Rutgers University School of Law, Former Chief Judge of the Newark Municipal Court in Newark, New Jersey, shared her own experience regarding the active role of a judge in respecting trial participants when administering justice.
During the second session, the participants learned about the role of the interaction between courts and the media in forming public perception of the judiciary and how it affected public trust. Ms. Tetyana Suyarko, Member of the Council of Judges of Ukraine, Kharkiv Oblast Commercial Court judge, spoke about the results of judicial cooperation with the media and provided successful examples from her own experience. Ms. Natalia Sokolenko, Journalist, Co-Founder of the Coalition of NGOs for the Reanimation Package of Reforms, suggested ways to improve the relations between courts and the media from the position of a journalist. Ms. Anna Honcharyk, Communications Expert, advised the courts on improving communication policies to promote greater transparency and openness to the public.
The third session was devoted to TV programs about courts and the challenges needed to be overcome in order to make them interesting to the audience. Presenters were Mr. Leslie Moran, Professor of Law of the University of London, Birkbeck School of Law; Ms. Svitlana Zapara, Reality TV Judge on “Family Court”; Mr. Dmytro Vovk, Ph.D. in Law, Associate Professor and the Director of Center for Rule of Law and Religion Studies at Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University.
During the fourth session, the speakers focused on the importance of public outreach by courts to the community they serve, including the use of social media platforms as an instrument to promote greater openness and transparency. In his report Mr. Volodymyr Kravchuk, Supreme Court Justice, member of the Council of Judges of Ukraine, shared examples of judges using social media platforms. Ms. Leah Gurowitz, Director of Media and Public Relations at Washington D.C. Courts in Columbia, explored how best to use social media platforms to share success stories and how to effectively interact with the media especially during high-profile cases. Mr. Ben Wilson, Director of Communications and Public Affairs at Goldsmiths, University of London, Former Head of Communications at the UK Supreme Court, added to the discussion by providing a real-world example of how the UK Supreme Court had used social media during the politically charged EU Brexit case in December 2016.
Supreme Court judges, members of the High Council of Justice, the Council of Judges of Ukraine, officials of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine and the National School of Judges of Ukraine, international experts on communications, representatives of international donor organizations, civil society, research organizations, law schools, the mass media participated at the conference.
The High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine at the event was represented by Mr. Mykhailo Makarchuk, member of the Chamber for Selection and Public Service of Judges of the Commission, Mr. Stepan Gladii, member of the Chamber for Selection and Public Service of Judges of the Commission, Mr. Pavlo Lutsiuk, member of the Qualification Chamber of the Commission, Mr. Andriy Kozlov, member of the Qualification Chamber of the Commission, and Mr. Oleksandr Bystrushkin, Deputy Head of the Commission’s Secretariat.
Reference:
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Nove Pravosuddya Justice Sector Reform Program (New Justice Program) started implementation in Ukraine in October 2016.
The program is designed to support the Judiciary, the Government, the Parliament, the Bar, Law Schools, Civil Society, Media and Citizens to create the conditions for independent, accountable, transparent, and effective justice system that upholds the rule of law and to fight corruption.
The USAID New Justice Program builds upon the success, partnership and efforts of the USAID Ukraine Rule of Law Project (UROL) and FAIR Justice Project (FAIR) and coordinates activities closely with Ukrainian counterparts, USAID, U.S. Government and other donor projects and implementers in Ukraine.
