Reform of the Supreme Court should ensure the real independence of judges - the meeting of UNBA leadership with the TWINNING project

On February 26, UNBA met with experts of the Twinning project "Strengthening the Capacity of the Supreme Court of Ukraine in the Field of Human Rights Protection at the National Level".

The meeting was dedicated to judicial reform in Ukraine and the role of the bar in ensuring fair trial, in particular, the work of the new Supreme Court and the application of new procedural legislation.

The meeting was attended by the Head of UNBA, BCU Lidia Izovitova, Deputy Head of UNBA, BCU Valentyn Gvozdii, Head of the Committee on International Relations Ivan Grechkovsky and Committee Secretary Vitalii Vlasiuk, Head of the Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy and Compliance Oleksandr Gotin, Head of HQDBC Serhii Vylkov, Head of the Secretariat of UNBA Vadym Krasnyk. The project experts who took part in the meeting were Martin Steinkühler, judge of the Federal Administrative Court of Germany, Winfried Schubert, ex-chairman of the Land Constitutional Court of Germany; Alfred Rene van der Winkel, President of the Court of Appeal.

During the meeting, there were discussed the following aspects: qualification of judges, procedure for the contest to the Supreme Court, overload of judges in courts of all levels, restriction of access to justice due to lack of judges in courts of first instance. The central issue of the discussion was the question of trust in the judiciary and the elimination of pressure and interference with the work of judges.

UNBA Deputy Head Valentyn Gvozdii emphasized that the bar is interested in the work of independent courts, the availability of transparent evaluation procedures and the appointment of judges to courts of all levels, as well as the development of a unified judicial practice. Nowadays, the presence of instruments of pressure on judges, including through the procedure of qualification, directly affects the possibility of making legal decisions and ensuring the guarantees of human rights protection. According to Valentyn Gvozdii, surveys have not yet shown that judicial reform has contributed to raising citizens' confidence in court.

Oleksandr Gotin emphasized that the judicial reform should be of a complex nature and concern, first and foremost, the courts of first instance, where there is now an acute shortage of judges. In addition, due to systemic problems of pressure on judges and the different application of the same rules of law in court practice, in fact every case goes through all instances and overloads the work of the Supreme Court, and paralyzes the judicial system as a whole. In the course of the discussion, there were discussed examples of Germany and the Netherlands, where 95-97% of cases are settled in the courts of first instance. The Head of the HQDBC Serhii Vylkov emphasized that due to this problem access to justice for many Ukrainian citizens, especially in the regions, was actually blocked.

During the conversation, there were also communicated the issues of interaction of the bar with the judiciary self-government bodies.

REFERENCE: On March 6, 2017, the implementation of the Twinning Project "Strengthening the Capacity of the Supreme Court of Ukraine in the Field of Human Rights Protection at the National Level" was launched. The implementation of the project envisages strengthening the independence and efficiency of the judiciary through the implementation of European standards, as well as enhancing the institutional capacity of the Supreme Court, which will enable the formation of a unified judicial practice and contribute to the strengthening of the rule of law in Ukraine.

On February 25 - March 1, 2019 Project experts are based in Ukraine to carry out a mission to analyze the national legislation on the activities of the Supreme Court.

The purpose of this expert mission is to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the legal problems of the application of procedural legislation of Ukraine norms in the part of cassation.