On March 17, 2021, the HQCJU Secretariat’s leadership held an online meeting with the USAID New Justice Program representatives: Justice Sector Reform Expert Victoria Jennett and Legal Adviser Myroslava Vorontsova, as part of an updated study on assessing the work of the Ukrainian judiciary on potential corruption risks.
The meeting was attended by the Head of the Commission’s Secretariat Olena Ponomarenko, Director of the Judicial Career Department Taras Neshyk and Acting Head of the International Cooperation Department Denys Kuznetsov.
The key issue discussed was the impossibility to exercise the powers in the field of judicial career procedures by the Commission due to the absence of its Members.
The parties also talked about the clerical problems faced by the Secretariat due to the absence of the Commission’s Members, as well as other daily operational and administrative difficulties in the work of the HQCJU that are to be resolved by law.
Representatives of the Commission’s Secretariat, in particular, drew the attention of experts to the importance of introducing a Unified Judicial Information and Telecommunication System, which would contain electronic dossiers of judges and judicial candidates (currently formed and maintained by the Secretariat of the Commission in paper form), as well as on the need to update the technical equipment of the Commission, which may appear with the resumption of judicial career procedures.
At the same time, it was noted that in recent years the Secretariat of the Commission has been active in improving the quality of services provided to the public. Such positive improvements in the quality and openness of judicial procedures have been repeatedly marked by international experts, including experts of the USAID New Justice Program.
The Secretariat of the Commission is currently pursuing a policy of openness and access to information provided by current legislation. For example, in 2020 it published
4 576 updated judicial dossiers (2 204 417 pages) and 2 208 materials of candidates for judicial positions (approximately 320 160 pages) at the official website of the Commission.
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The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) New Justice Program has been operating in Ukraine since October 2016.
The Program is aimed to support the judiciary, Government, Parliament, Civil Society and the People of Ukraine in the implementation of judicial reform.