On August 4, 2023, the meeting of the Chairman of the High Council of Justice Hryhorii Usyk and members of the Council with His Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador Melinda Simmons and the Director of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) in Ukraine Levan Duchidze took place.
Hryhorii Usyk expressed gratitude to the United Kingdom for the provided military, humanitarian and political assistance, without which it would be much more difficult for Ukraine to fight for its independence, territorial integrity and freedom.
He noted that due to the full-scale invasion the whole country, including the judicial system, works in extremely difficult security conditions. The judiciary faces the task to organize work effectively to ensure the protection of citizens’ rights and interests.
Hryhorii Usyk informed that in the short term the HCJ succeeded to select a plenipotentiary composition of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine which is already actively solving an issue of filling vacant positions of judges in courts, and this will give the possibility to stabilize the functioning of the judicial system. However, the problem of restoring the disciplinary function of the High Council of Justice and forming the disciplinary inspectors’ service remains unresolved.
The HCJ Chairman told about the concerns of the judicial community regarding the draft laws submitted to the Parliament of Ukraine in connection with the decision of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, which provide the conduction of monitoring, including by means of a lie detector, of the entire court in case of a notification of suspicion of committing a corruption crime to one of the judges.
He assured that the High Council of Justice is aimed at fulfilling the tasks assigned to it to ensure the independence of judges, improve the judicial proceedings, restore trust in the judiciary.
His Majesty's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ukraine Dame Melinda Simmons assured that Britain will continue supporting Ukraine. The reform of the judiciary is very important for public and international investors’ trust.
The Country Manager of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) Levan Duchidze noted the positive aspects of reforming the judiciary in Ukraine and emphasized that international experts are ready to adapt assistance plans, if necessary.
During the meeting the parties signed a joint action plan for the implementation of an international technical assistance project “Supporting Judicial Administration Reform in Ukraine”, aimed at strengthening institutional independence, transparency, and capacities of the HCJ through:
- advancing the transparency-based organizational change of the HCJ Secretariat based on the transparency principle;
- improving knowledge of international standards applicable to judicial governance and accountability among the new members of the HCJ;
- raising awareness about gender fairness and inclusion among the new members of the HCJ;
- institutionalizing transparent appointment and sanctioning of judges;
- supporting digital transformation of Ukraine’s judiciary;
- providing expert advice on the best international practices, approaches, and criteria for the court optimization;
- providing expert advice on optimizing judicial administration bodies.
The project will be implemented by the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), with the assistance of The Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland acting through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
The meeting was attended by HCJ members Hryhorii Usyk, Oksana Blazhivska, Yuliia Bokova, Tetiana Bondarenko, Serhii Burlakov, Olena Kovbii, Roman Maselko, Oleksii Melnyk, Olha Popikova, Vitalii Salikhov, Mykola Moroz, employees of the Council’s secretariat;
from the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Ukraine – Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Melinda Simmons, First Secretary Political William Turner, Governance Programme Manager Iryna Lad;
from the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) – Country Manager Levan Duchidze, Anti-corruption issues expert Viktor Kylymar.