Judges have shown a high level of trust in all judicial institutions. In particular, according to the survey, the judiciary is generally trusted by 86% of respondents, the High Council of Justice – 78 %. Besides, 75% of respondents trust the Supreme Court, 67 % - the High Anticorruption court.
These are the results of an independent survey, held in 2021 within the USAID New Justice Program.
At the same time, the level of trust in the judiciary among court participants has increased. According to the survey, 35% of respondents (in 2019 - 28%) admitted that they trust the courts, 30% said they were neutral.
2. Activity of the HCJ secretariat for the 1 half of 2021 in numbers
During January – June 2021, the secretariat of the High Council of Justice has considered 1499 appeals:
- 1310 – from individuals,
- 123 – from legal entities,
- 44 – from people’s deputies, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committees,
- 22 – from community associations.
For the first six months of 2021 have been prepared 12 081 cover letters on sending to relevant institutions, judges, complainants of acts, approved by the High Council of Justice, Disciplinary chambers and HCJ members, 19 492 copies of acts of the HCJ and its bodies have been issued.
3. Access to the register of automated distribution of materials is open
From now on, information on the distribution of materials among the members of the High Council of Justice is available to everyone in real-time.
The Register already contains information on the automated distribution of materials received by the HCJ since March 9, 2021.
The search is carried out by the date of registration of the application/proceeding or by context. This makes it possible to find the information you need with a minimum of input data.
4. Three judges have been seconded
On July 13, 2021, the HCJ decided to second to the Podilskyi district court of Kyiv three judges for administering justice for the term of one year from August 2, 2021:
- judge of the Novomyrhorodskyi district court of Kirovohrad region Leschenko Olena Vasylivna;
- judge of the Kozeletskyi district court of Chernihiv region Buzunko Olena Anatoliivna;
- judge of the Solonianskyi district court of Dnipropetrovsk region Kitov Oleksandr Vasyliovych.
5. During I quarter 75 judges have been dismissed
On general grounds 68 judges were dismissed, namely:
- due to submission of an application for resignation – 67;
- due to submission of application for voluntary dismissal – 1.
On special grounds 7 judges were dismissed, in particular:
- for the commission of a serious disciplinary offense – 6;
- by the results of the qualification assessment judge was found as non-compliant with the position held (subitem 4 of item 161 of chapter XV “Transitional provisions” of the Constitution of Ukraine) – 1.
At the initiative of the High Council of Justice, on July 13, 2021, a working meeting of HCJ members with the heads of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine and the Council of Judges of Ukraine was held, in order to immediately identify priority steps to increase salary for court staff.
As a result of the meeting, the participants agreed to identify ways to resolve the critical situation regarding the financing of court staff and decided to:
- submit to the consideration of the Working group on ensuring adequate funding for the judiciary in Ukraine, formed in the Verkhovna Rada Committee on legal policy, proposals on making amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges” for establishing the size of salaries of civil servants of courts for the purpose of further legislative initiative;
- submit a proposal regarding determination of salary calculations for court staff, taking into account incentive payments in the amount of not less than 20% of the salary;
- provide the number of salaries of court staff in the Law of Ukraine “On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges”;
- in case of making amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On civil service” in part of the determination of salaries of court staff, take into account the peculiarities of the settlement by the Law of Ukraine “On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges” the issue of remuneration of this category of employees;
- review the size of coefficients for remuneration of salaries with the determination of coefficients for civil servants of courts.
During the first half of 2021 the High Council of Justice made decisions on making submissions to the President of Ukraine on appointing to positions 35 judges to local courts:
- to local general courts – 33 judges;
- to local administrative court – 1 judge;
- to local commercial court – 1 judge.
According to the decision of July 13, 2021, No. 1542/0/15-21 the beginning of the procedure for seconding two judges to the Koziatynskyi city district court of Vinnytsia region has been announced.
Judges who expressed the wish to be seconded to the 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. The list of mentioned documents is here.
9. The term for granting judges’ consent for seconding to two courts has been extended
The High Council of Justice, according to the decision of July 13, 2021 No. 1540/0/15-21 and No. 1543/0/15-21 extended the term of granting judges’ consent for seconding to the Odesa appellate court and the Luhynskyi district court of Zhytomyr region till July 23, 2021.
By decisions of the HCJ of June 17, 2021, No. 1411/0/15-21 and of July 1, 2021, No.1447/0/15-21 announced 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 Odesa appellate court – 10 judges;
- the Luhynskyi district court of Zhytomyr region – 1 judge.
Judge of the Kuznetsovskyi city court of Rivne region Iryna Neznamova informed the HCJ that defendant T. bequeathed his property to her. Judge Iryna Neznamova considers that the statement of the defendant T. on their “business acquaintance” and his actions regarding drawing up a will in favor of a judge prior to the hearing of the case against him is a manifestation of illegal influence, pressure and interference in the activities of a judge in the administration of justice, for which Article 376 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine provides for criminal liability.
The HCJ decided to address the Prosecutor General’s Office on providing information regarding disclosure and investigation of a crime in criminal proceedings, entered in the Unified register of pre-trial investigations, provided by part 1 of Article 376 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, by facts, stated in the notification of the judge of the Kuznetsovskyi city court of Rivne region Neznamova Iryna Mykolaivna.
Since the beginning of the year, the HCJ has received 152 notifications on interference in the professional activity of judges regarding administering justice, and actions that violate guarantees of independence of judges or undermine the authority of justice. Taking into account the notifications received in previous periods, in the first half of the year the Council has received 163 notifications.
By the results of consideration of 51 notifications on interference in the activity of judges regarding administering justice 31 decisions on taking response measures were made (addressing prosecutor’s offices and law enforcement agencies on providing information on the disclosure and investigation of crimes; making submissions to relevant bodies or officials on identification and prosecution of persons who have committed acts or committed inaction, etc.).
Having considered 112 notifications from judges, the Council made 23 decisions on approving 103 opinions of the HCJ members on the lack of grounds for taking measures to ensure the independence of judges and the authority of justice.
The HCJ decided to address the Prosecutor General’s Office on providing information regarding disclosure and investigation of a crime in criminal proceedings, entered in the Unified register of pre-trial investigations by signs of a criminal offense, provided by part one of Article 376 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, by facts, stated in the notification of the judge of the Commercial Court of Kharkiv region Usatyi V.O. Judge Vitalii Usatyi notified that a person unknown to him made a will in his name on the eve of the trial, using personal data without his consent.
During the first six months of 2021, the High Council of Justice received 5954 complaints regarding the disciplinary misconduct of a judge.
During this period Disciplinary Chambers and the HCJ members have completed the consideration of 6134 disciplinary complaints, including those received in previous years.
By the results of consideration of disciplinary complaints, the Disciplinary chambers made:
- 128 decisions on opening a disciplinary case;
- 154 decisions on returning disciplinary complaints by rulings of Disciplinary chambers;
- 423 decisions on rejection in opening disciplinary cases;
- 38 decisions on rejection in bringing judges to disciplinary liability and the closing of a disciplinary proceeding.
In all, during January – June 2021, Disciplinary chambers of the HCJ made 53 decisions on bringing to disciplinary liability 61 judges. By the results of consideration of disciplinary complaints, such types of disciplinary penalties were applied to judges:
- warning – regarding 29 judges;
- reprimand with the deprivation of the right to receive additional payments to the salary of a judge within one month regarding 12 judges;
- strict reprimand with the deprivation of the right to receive additional payments to the salary of a judge within three months regarding 13 judges;
- submission for temporary suspension from administering justice regarding 1 judge;
- submission for dismissal regarding 6 judges.
The HCJ on July 15, 2021, decided to return without consideration the petition on the continuation of the term of temporary suspension of the judge of the Donetsk circuit administrative court Cherepovskyi Yevhen Volodymyrovych from administering justice due to bringing him to criminal liability, which was filed by the first Deputy Prosecutor General Hovdia Roman Mykhailovych, for further revision.
15. President will appoint nine judges
On July 15, 2021, the High Council of Justice decided to make a submission to the President of Ukraine on appointing to positions in local courts:
- KACHANOK Oleksandr Mykolaiovych – to the position of the judge of the Luhansk circuit administrative court;
- LUCHKO Roman Mykhailovch – to the position of the judge of the Commercial court of Zakarpattia region;
- RIANSKA Viktoriia Viacheslavivna – to the position of the judge of the Dnipropetrovsk circuit administrative court;
- KHURSA Oleksandr Oleksandrovych – to the position of the judge of the Odesa circuit administrative court;
- ZHELIK Oleksandra Myroslavivna – to the position of the judge of the Lviv circuit administrative court;
- HRESKO Oleh Romanovych – to the position of the judge of the Rivne circuit administrative court;
- DUPLIAK Stepan Anatoliiovych – to the position of the judge of the Commercial Court of Dnipropetrovsk region;
- SADOVA Mariia Ivanivna – to the position of the judge of the Kyiv circuit administrative court;
- CHAPLYK Iryna Dmytrivna – to the position of the judge of the Lviv circuit administrative court.