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28.03.18
The Public Integrity Council was established for public’s effective engagement in the virtuous judiciary formation.
Recently, the process for assessing the rest of judges has started. It should have resulted in the total clearance of Ukraine’s judiciary from judges with tarnished judicial reputation and those who undermine judicial credibility.
Instead the High Qualification Commission did its best to block the real clearance of the judiciary from dishonest judges:
– The interviews time-table was changed to resemble a conveyor – HQCJ is planning to reassess five thousand judges in several months – as a result the interviews with judges sometimes last no more than 6 minutes;
– The Public Integrity Council’s opinions were postponed and were not considered with reference to the illegal provisions of the HQCJ Regulation;
– Judges who were earlier involved in persecuting Euromaidan activists can easily pass the judicial re-attestation because HQCJ decided to not take into account their previous rulings;
– Some of HQCJ members when holding their offices have taken actions that should serve as ground for dismissal, therefore they have obvious conflict of interest;
– The procedure for assessing judges is not transparent – it’s unknown how the HQCJ members vote, which scores and what for the judges receive.
The High Qualification Commission did not respond to any of the Public Integrity Council’s appeals to change the rules and to establish effective cooperation. Also, they ignore requirements of the Families of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes, which called for the judiciary clearance from judges who became a repressive tool in Yanukovych’s hands during the Revolution of Dignity.
According to the reasons provided above we suspend our work in this process and demand to stop it immediately.
Resumption of the process for assessing judges will have sense only if the below circumstances change:
- Introduction of a realistic time-table of the process for assessing judges;
- Transparent procedure for assessing judges for the public to know how every HQCJ member voted, which scores and what for the judges received.
- Cancellation of provisions of the HQCJ Regulation which allow ignoring the Council’s opinion and sweep under the carpet the previous rulings of judges who were earlier involved in persecuting Euromaidan activists and other unjust decisions;
- Elimination of the High Qualification Commission’s members whoseintegrity raises doubts from the process for assessing judges;
- Vest the Public Integrity Council’s member’s with real authority to evaluate the judge’s integrity.
The Public Integrity Council’s members