The HCJ hosted a meeting with members of the NACP Performance External Assessment Commission
At the initiative of the NACP Performance External Assessment Commission in the VRP it was held a meeting with members of the Council.
The said Commission will assess the effectiveness of the NAPC for the period from January 15, 2020 to January 15, 2022 in accordance with the Law of Ukraine «On Prevention of Corruption”.
The purpose of the meeting was to hear information from the HCJ on the Commission's compliance with the guarantees of the independence of judges, in the exercise of its powers.
The HCJ member Svitlana Shelest drew attention of the members of the Commission that the introduction of a separate procedure for the implementation of full verification and monitoring of a judge’s lifestyle, which is determined by the National Agency with the mandatory approval of the HCJ, is a feature that provides for an additional guarantees for judges in implementation of such measures.
This feature is not a privilege for a judge, but rather to prevent any illegal influence, pressure or interference with the activities of a judge during verification.
Meanwhile, starting from March 2021, the NACP has been verifying declarations of judges according to a general rather than a special procedure, without taking into account the specifics determined by Article 522 of the Law of Ukraine “On Prevention of Corruption” for judges as a special category of declaration subjects.
In total, for the period from March to November 2021, the High Council of Justice received 244 notifications on the beginning of full verification of the declaration of a judge and 1 notice on the beginning of monitoring of a judge's lifestyle.
The High Council of Justice member Oksana Blazhivska took part in an extended meeting of the Subcommittee on Justice of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Legal Policy, during which draft laws No. 5882, 6049, 6180, 6311, 6377, 6377-1 were discussed.
This was stated by the HCH a member Serhii Bolotin during the preliminary consideration of the draft law No. 6049 at the meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy.
The draft law proposes temporarily, until the day of completion by the HQCJU competition for the vacant positions of judges of courts of appeal, announced on August 9, 2019, to endow the HCJ with the authority to second judges of local court, court of appeal or the Supreme Court to court of appeal of the same specialization for one year period.
In particular, the HCJ member drew attention of people’s deputies that implementation of the changes proposed by the draft law will necessitate an increase in budget allocations. After all, the size of the basic official salary of judges of different instances is different. And if it is necessary to ensure larger remuneration for judges who will be seconded from courts of first instance to a court of appeal and maintain the amount of remuneration of seconded judges of the Supreme Court, it will certainly increase the financial demand.
The HCJ took measures to ensure the independence and authority of the judiciary by results of verification of information provided by the Kiev Court of Appeal judges Viacheslav Dziubin, Olexander Mykoliuk and Valentyn Shrol.
In the notification the judges stated that on the website of the public organization “Ukraine against the arbitrariness of officials” they found publications in which, according to their conviction, the person groundlessly claims them of dishonesty with reference to unreliable information.
The Council decided to apply to the Court Security Service for immediate measures provided by law to ensure the personal safety of judges and protection of the premises of the Kiev Court of Appeal.
The HCJ also decided to address the Prosecutor General’s Office on the need to ensure verification of the circumstances notified by the judges in compliance with the provisions of Article 19 of the Constitution of Ukraine and Article 214 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.
Procedure of secondment judges to two courts has begun
The HCJ, according to decision of February 3, 2022, № 88/0/15-22 and № 90/0/15-22 announces the beginning of the procedure for seconding judges to another court of the same level and specialization for the administration of justice, namely:
to the Marinskyi district court of Donetsk region – 1 judge;
to the Luhinskyi district court of Zhytomyr region – 1 judge.
Judges who expressed the wish to be seconded to mentioned court must submit to the High Council of Justice within ten days (from the date of the announcement of the beginning of the procedure for seconding judges) necessary documents.
On February 4, 2022, the application process for participation in the first competition for vacant positions of the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine (the HQCJU) members began, which will last until March 4, 2022 inclusive. The competition will be held on the basis of the rule of law, professionalism, publicity and political neutrality.