International experts presented their conclusions on compliance of the Commission regulatory acts with the European standards
The Commission held a round table “European standards and the regulatory acts of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine on judicial dossier and assessment of judges” on 17 September, 2015.
During the event there also was a presentation and discussion of the preliminary conclusions of Mr Gerhard Reissner, the Council of Europe expert and Mrs Gar Yein Ng, international experts of the OSCE on compliance of the Commission regulatory acts regarding the judicial dossier, qualification assessment of judges and certain provisions of the Regulations with the European standards.
Mr Mykola Patriuk, Deputy Chairman of the Commission, Mr Mykhailo Makarchuk and Mrs Tetiana Veselska, Commission Members, Mrs Olena Ponomarenko, Head of the Commission Secretariat, Mrs Lilit Daneghian, Head of the Justice Sector Reform Unit, Department of Rule of Law and Legal Cooperation, Council of Europe, Mr Pavol Zhylinchik, international expert of the Council of Europe, Mr Andrii Kavakin, Project manager, Mrs Tina Gewis, Chief of the Rule of Law Unit, Democratization Department, OSCE, as well as inspectors and staff of the Commission Secretariat and national experts took part in the round table.
The discussion topics included issues of maintenance of judicial dossier and the information it should comprise, as well as organizing and holding qualification assessment of judges.
As was noted by international experts, they are attentively monitoring the progress of judicial reform in Ukraine and are ready to provide expert support to the Commission on practical aspects of implementation of new provisions of the Law “On ensuring the right to a fair trial” concerning judicial dossier maintenance and organization of qualification assessment of judges.
Experts stressed that criteria and assessment methods should be known for judges and be agreed with the Council of Judges of Ukraine. After their approximation judges by no means should ignore the assessment.
Mr Reissner positively assessed revised Regulation of the Commission on procedure and methodology of qualification assessment of a judge. He also agreed with Mrs Gar Yein Ng that in judicial dossier maintenance it is important to limit the access thereto and to protect data on judges.
The round table was organized by the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine in cooperation with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe Project “Strengthening the system of judicial accountability in Ukraine.”
