They almost started a fight– Qualification Commission promised to publicly open dossiers of candidates for Supreme Court

High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine (HQCJ) will not begin the stage of interview with candidates for the position of judges in the Supreme Court until it receives information or conclusion about a candidate from the Public Integrity Council (PIC).

As reported by reporter of the Human Rights Information Centre, this was stated by Sergii Kiziakov, the Chairman of the High Qualification Commission of Judges.

According to him, one of the reasons for candidate to attempt to reverse the decision in the Supreme Administrative Court is non-compliance with the procedure.

“Providing opinion or information from the Public Integrity Council is part of the administrative procedure. Therefore, we can receive a negative decision of the court if we won’t wait until they provide information”, – he said.

As noted by the reporter, the Chairman of the HQCJ made such a statement after a heated argument with community activists and members of the Public Integrity Council.

On the morning of March 1, they picketed the Qualification Commission of Judges, demanding to reveal dossiers on the candidates for the position of judges in the Supreme Court.

Activists and the Public Integrity Council accused the Commission of the fact that they have not revealed the dossiers of candidates for four months. They are convinced that this leads to the competition being non-transparent and complicates the ability of the Public Integrity Council, mass media outlets and public to analyze the righteousness of the candidates.

Activists dressed in robes organized the March of Unknown. With this performance organizers of the event tried to emphasize that candidates of the Supreme Court are unknown.

Taras Shevchenko, the co-founder of the CHESNO Movement, accused the High Qualification Commission of Judges of not providing dossiers even on request.

“Public Movement CHESNO addressed to the High Qualification Commission of Judges with request to provide the information contained in the dossiers on the individual candidates for the Supreme Court. Journalist Serhiy Andrushko have applied with the same request. HQCJ denied both requests. In this way, not only Commission failed to comply with norm of the Law on Judicial System and Status of Judges, but also violated the law on access to public information”, – he said.

In turn, Sergii Kiziakov explained that the Law on Judicial System and Status of Judges requires the disclosure of the dossiers in automated system. And this requires the software and complex system of information protection. He noted that they have not received funds for the development of the software.

But activists insist that the High Qualification Commission of Judges will not break the law if they will reveal dossiers in accordance with the law “On Access to Public Information”.

“We are thinking about the ways of revealing so that dossiers could be accessed in hard copies or scanned, without violating the law. This will happen soon”, – he said.

Members of the Public Integrity Council reminded that they have to work with dossiers in limited time, because on their basis PIC will create and provide the negative conclusions about the candidates to the Commissions. This must happen not later than 15 days prior to the interview.

“The conclusion of the Council is the only possibility of public influence on the selection of judges. Conclusions will be incomplete and sometimes impossible without the analysis of judicial dossiers. It is unacceptable when the key body that is responsible for the reformation of justice breaks the law and does not allow for the Public Integrity Council to perform their functions”, – said Roman Maselko, an activist of the AutoMaidan and member of the Public Integrity Council.

Meanwhile, Valentyna Simonenko, the candidate for the Supreme Court and Chairman of the Council of Judges of Ukraine spoke against the use of judicial paraphernalia during March of Unknown.

“The use of judicial attributes by other persons may be regarded as conferring of the attributes and functions of the judicial system. I ask all demonstrators to refrain from violations of the law and the assumption of any functions of any public authority”, – said in her statement.

As a reminder, competition for 120 positions in 4 appeal courts of the Supreme Court is continuing in Ukraine. Two stages for the positions of the Supreme Court have already passed. One hundred of applicants dropped out after the first stage of the competition for the position of Supreme Court judges.

On February 21, candidates completed a practical task. They were supposed to model the lawsuit and deliver a verdict. Several candidates had an unfair advantage of deciding a verdict on the cases they have already decided in the past. Currently High Qualification Commission of Judges is checking the results of second stage.

Subsequently, their moral and psychological qualities will be tested. After that, the Public Integrity Council will present its conclusions of non-compliance of some candidates. Finally, to mid-March candidates will participate in the interviews.

New Supreme Court must start functioning in April.

As a reminder, earlier CHESNO movement named infamous candidates for the position of judges in the Supreme Court. The candidates are from the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine, the Supreme Administrative Court, the Supreme Court of Ukraine, as well as from the High Specialized Court.

In December 2016, the CHESNO movement reported that only 29% of the candidates for the Supreme Court are not related to judicial system.

Earlier, Andriy Kozlov, a member of the High Qualification Commission of Judges, suggested that publicity will lose the fight for conscientious judiciary. Since the people living near the judges and who can see how they live will not inform the Public Integrity Council and the High Qualification Commission of Judges about the facts of negligence of candidates.