1. Activity of the HCJ Secretariat for January-May 2021 in numbers
During January – May 2021 the Secretariat of the High Council of Justice has considered 1243 appeals: 1086 – from individuals, 98 – from legal entities, 40 – from people’s deputies of Ukraine and Committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 19 – from community associations, and also 302 requests for information.
For the first five months of 2021 have been prepared 10 284 cover letters on sending to relevant institutions, judges, complainants of acts, approved by the HCJ, Disciplinary chambers and HCJ members, 16 755 copies of acts of the HCJ and its bodies have been issued, 92 tomes of cases have been scanned.
Have been prepared and published on the official website of the HCJ 328 news, 98 previews, 92 operational results of consideration of issues of the sessions’ agenda, 1128 acts of the High Council of Justice.
The Second Disciplinary chamber of the High Council of Justice decided to bring judge of the Dnipropetrovsk circuit administrative court Yukhno Iryna Valeriivna to disciplinary liability and apply to her a disciplinary penalty in the form of a strict reprimand with the deprivation of the right to receive additional payments to the salary of a judge within three months.
The disciplinary body stated that the judge, by making a ruling of August 5, 2020, on securing a claim in a case of administrative jurisdiction, in fact, made it impossible to enforce the decision in the commercial case, by which she interfered with the person's right to own property.
3. Oleksii Malovatskyi held a working meeting with the Anti-Corruption Network experts
The acting Chairman of the High Council of Justice Oleksii Malovatskyi held a working meeting with experts of the Anti-Corruption Network for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which was established by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
In 2021 the OECD Anti-Corruption Network realizes a pilot project of the 5th round of monitoring of Ukraine. Its representatives study information on the situation in various areas, including justice.
During the meeting, the acting Chairman of the HCJ outlined the main issues of the judiciary. In particular, he emphasized that due to the absence of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine the qualification evaluation of judges has not been completed, have not been checked the works of around 200 candidates for the position of judges, who passed all the stages of selection but have not been appointed yet. The lack of staff negatively affects the length of cases’ consideration and trust to the court.
Oleksii Malovatskyi acquainted the experts with the powers and various aspects of the activity of the High Council of Justice, told about statistical indicators of work, and provided comprehensive arguments as to the legal basis for the Council's decisions.
4. Reforms have to be directed at improving access to justice, - Volodymyr Hovorukha
Judges’ work, their vital activity largely depends on the decisions of other state institutions and subjects of power.
This was commented by the HCJ member Volodymyr Hovorukha to the "Yurydychna praktyka" newspaper.
Court – is the only place in the state where a person can defend his right and only an independent court can be fair. That is why it is extremely important to prevent influence, any pressure on judges.
Public authorities should pay special attention to issues of adequate staffing, legislative, financial provision of the judicial system. Procrastination in solving glaring problems leads to worsening of the state of protection of citizens' rights. Ensuring access to justice is a joint case. The unique state mechanism will work effectively only if there is coordinated joint work.
More details here.
On June 15, 2021, the HCJ decided to dismiss due to the submission of applications for resignation:
Kurova Olena Ivanivna – from the position of the judge of the Solomianskyi district court of Kyiv;
Mandryk Vitalii Oleksandrovych – from the position of the judge of the Odesa appellate court.
6. Staff shortages negatively affect access to justice, – Svitlana Shelest
This was emphasized by the member of the High Council of Justice Svitlana Shelest during the ІХ International judicial and legal forum.
According to her, it is important for the HCJ that the crisis staffing situation be regulated as soon as possible because there is an extremely high demand in society for judicial protection and restoration of violated rights.
An acute staffing deficit is observed in courts of first and appellate instances. The lack of judges causes a significant workload of judges administering justice. For the first quarter of 2021 1 007 133 cases have been received for consideration by 4 864 authorized judges of local and appellate courts, 892 407 cases have been considered. During 2020 3 675 932 cases were received for consideration by 4 991 authorized judges of local and appellate courts, 3 510 209 cases were considered.
As emphasized Svitlana Shelest, the situation in the appellate courts is particularly critical. In particular, in the Zaporizhzhia appellate court 16 judges out of 40, provided by the staff list, administer justice; in the Kharkiv appellate court – 16 judges out of 60; in the Zakarpattia appellate court – 12 judges out of 25; in the Sumy appellate court – 7 judges out of 25; in the First appellate administrative court – 9 judges out of 21. With such a shortage of judges, meeting deadlines is simply unrealistic.
More details here.
In the report “IJITS rebooting: correction of mistakes and new challenges” the member of the High Council of Justice Larysa Shvetsova told in details about the history of implementation of the Integrated judicial information and telecommunication system – from conception, development of draft regulations to the state of readiness of modules.
On June 11, 2021, the Council of Judges of Ukraine approved the draft Regulation on the Integrated judicial information and telecommunication system, provided by the SJA of Ukraine. It says about 4 modules: “E-cabinet” (judge’s, claimant’s, defendant’s, lawyer’s and prosecutor’s); “E-court” (documents exchange between courts, and also between the parties on the case); “Video conferencing”; “Document management” (electronic workflow). Other modules are planned to be implemented after proper technical support and testing. Work is underway to introduce modules “E-archive” and “Electronic executive letters”.
Besides, currently, other modules in one format or another are also working or being tested, but are not integrated as IJITS elements (Unified state register of court decisions, Ukrainian Judiciary web portal, “Kadry WEB” system, “Finances”).
The HCJ member drew attention to the importance of integrating existing registers into one system, which would allow judges to obtain all the necessary information quickly.
The active work on IJITS implementation should continue, after all, advanced tools will simplify many processes.
8. Oleksii Malovatskyi: the restoration of work of the HQCJU has to become a priority not only for the judiciary but for the state in general
The acting Chairman of the High Council of Justice Oleksii Malovatskyi spoke at ІХ International judicial and legal forum with a special report on the independence of the judiciary.
He noted that a chronic underfunding of courts – it is an inadmissible interference with the judiciary's constitutional role, which undermines the foundations of a democratic society and the rule of law. And if the level of satisfaction of the need for financing of courts in 2017 was 79.1%, in 2018 – 77,9%, in 2019 – 69,5%, then in 2020 it dropped to 64.4%.
Oleksii Malovatskyi emphasized: the restoration of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine has to become a priority not only for the judiciary but for the state in general. He also drew attention to the shortage of judges and provided statistics. As of June 7, 2021, 1974 of judicial positions are vacant. The dynamics of the outflow of personnel during January - May 2021 showed that during this time 61 judges resigned. One more issue – expiration of powers of judges. In the absence of the HQCJU, this issue also remains unresolved.
According to Oleksii Malovatskyi, for more effective realization by the HCJ of its powers, it should be empowered with the right of legislative initiative and the right to appeal to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
Video – Speech of Oleksii Malovatskyi
A decision on bringing judges to disciplinary liability and applying to them a disciplinary penalty in the form of submission for dismissal from the position was made by the Third Disciplinary chamber of the High Council of Justice on June 16, 2021.
According to part seven of Article 49 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges” and part two of Article 62 of the Law of Ukraine “On the High Council of Justice”, taking into account the decision, made by the Third Disciplinary chamber of the High Council of Justice on June 16, 2021, judges of the Synelnykivskyi city district court of Dnipropetrovsk region Kukhar Dmytro Oleksiiovych and Hrechko Yurii Valeriiovych were suspended from administering justice.
“A state cannot exist without the judiciary. This is the basis of state power. And in order for the courts to be able to administer justice, sufficient funding is needed. The solution to the problem must be approached systematically”, – emphasized member of the High Council of Justice Oleh Prudivus during ІХ International judicial and legal forum.
“In recent years, the judiciary has been underfunded. The lion's share of funding goes to pay salaries. There are not enough funds for current expenses, on capital - are absent at all. The work of the courts is on the verge of termination, as the courts are not able to send correspondence, pay for utilities, employees of court apparatus quit en masse, and their salaries cannot withstand any criticism. Issues of mandatory minimum wages for court staff are resolving extremely difficult. Recently we addressed the National agency on civil service on the development of a new salary scheme for court staff. We want the most part of salaries not to be incentive payments, but the basic salary, which would be approved at the level of law”, – said member of the Council.
Oleh Prudivus is sure that it is possible to plan the amount of financial support only by clearly defining the network of courts.
He also noted that a prospect of positive developments has emerged thanks to the work of a group on ensuring adequate funding for the judiciary in Ukraine, established within the Verkhovna Rada Committee on legal policy.
Oleh Prudivus called parliamentarians and the Government to actively join the search of sources of courts’ funding.
11. One donor saves three lives: the HCJ joined a charity initiative
In honor of World Blood Donor Day, the HCJ staff joined the charity initiative. More than 8 liters of blood were collected, which gives a chance to save 57 lives.
12. HCJ seconded a judge for administering justice to the Desnianskyi district court of Kyiv
The High Council of Justice on June 17, 2021, decided to second for administering justice judge of the Zhovtovodskyi city court of Dnipropetrovsk region VOLCHEK Nataliia Yuriivna to the Desnianskyi district court of Kyiv from August 1, 2021, for a period of one year.
The decision on the beginning of the procedure of secondment of judges to the mentioned court the High Council of Justice made on May 11, 2021, in connection with which the relevant announcement was placed on the official website of the HCJ.
On June 17, 2021, the HCJ decided to dismiss due to submission of applications for resignation:
Skoryk Volodymyr Mykolaiovych – from the position of the judge of the Solomianskyi district court of Kyiv;
Hulak Nataliia Anatoliivna – from the position of the judge of the Bohunskyi district court of Zhytomyr;
Fomin Valerii Anatoliiovych – from the position of the judge of the Zaporizhzhia appellate court;
Smirnova Nataliia Andriivna – from the position of the judge of the Lozivskyi city district court of Kharkiv region;
Shyrobokova Liudmyla Petrivna – from the position of the judge of the Center appellate commercial court.
14. Law was adopted, which increased court expenditures by 742 million UAH
On June 17, 2021, the Parliament adopted the Law, according to which the expenditures of the SJA of Ukraine under the budget program "Ensuring the administration of justice by local, appellate courts and the functioning of bodies and institutions of the justice system" increased by 742,000.0 thousand UAH.
By the information of the SJA of Ukraine, additional costs (742 050,7 thousand UAH), will be aimed at paying salaries to employees of local and appellate courts, salary accruals, as well as for the purchase of postage stamps, envelopes, paper, payment for postal services, etc.
The HCJ repeatedly stated that funds provided by the State Budget in 2021 to finance the judiciary are insufficient and addressed the Government, Ministry of finances, Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on budget issues, Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on legal policy with a request to provide critical expenses.
In the advisory opinion, the Council supported the draft law No. 5304, emphasizing that appropriate measures are essential and urgent.
Seeking to correct the extremely critical situation in some courts and ensuring a more even distribution of budget funds for the payment of salaries to court staff, the High Council of Justice twice – in March and May 2021 – decided to approve the redistribution of budget expenditures of the State Budget of Ukraine.
Members of the High Council of Justice actively worked as part of the working group ensuring adequate funding for the judiciary in Ukraine, established within the Verkhovna Rada Committee on legal policy, held consultations with people's deputies, regular working meetings with representatives of judicial self(governance) bodies in order to positively address the issue of courts’ financing.
The HCJ will continue to make every effort to take into account the position of the judiciary in dealing with financial security, as without adequate funding the courts will not be able to administer justice.
15. High Council of Justice since the beginning of the year has considered 5306 disciplinary complaints
During the first five months of 2021, the High Council of Justice received 5086 complaints regarding the disciplinary misconduct of a judge.
In total, during January – May 2021 Disciplinary chambers of the HCJ made 46 decisions on bringing 53 judges to disciplinary liability. By the results of consideration of disciplinary complaints, such types of disciplinary penalties were applied to judges:
- warning regarding 27 judges;
- reprimand with the deprivation of the right to receive additional payments to the salary of a judge within one month regarding 11 judges;
- strict reprimand with the deprivation of the right to receive additional payments to the salary of a judge within three months regarding 11 judges;
- submission for temporary suspension from administering justice regarding 1 judge;
- submission for dismissal regarding 3 judges.
The main task of the judiciary, in particular administrative justice, is to protect the rights and legally protected interests of every citizen of Ukraine. However, most cases heard by administrative courts are not disputes. This was emphasized by member of the High Council of Justice Oleh Prudivus at ІХ International judicial and legal forum.
“Due to the systematic failure of the state to fulfill its direct responsibilities, administrative courts are overwhelmed by the number of cases. More than 60% of claims in the administrative jurisdiction concern the restoration of violated social guarantees. These are mostly pension cases. Most lawsuits against the Pension Fund are satisfied by the courts. Performing a de facto formal function, judges spend a great deal of time that could be devoted to resolving genuine disputes, and not lawsuits caused by violations of the law by public authorities”, – noted Oleh Prudivus.
17. Procedure for seconding judges to three more courts has begun
The High Council of Justice according to decisions of June 17, 2021, No. 1411/0/15-21, 1412/0/15-21, 1413/0/15-21 announces the beginning of the procedure for seconding judges to another court of the same level and specialization for administering justice, namely to:
Odesa appellate court – 10 judges;
Kovelskyi city district court of Volyn region – 2 judges;
Western appellate commercial court – 1 judge.
Judges who expressed the wish to be seconded to the mentioned courts must submit documents to the High Council of Justice within ten days (from the date of the announcement of the beginning of the procedure for seconding judges).
The list of documents that must be submitted by judges who have expressed a desire to be seconded to these courts, is here.