Project profile — Support to Judicial Reform in Ukraine

• Ukraine (100.00%)

• Government And Civil Society, General: Legal and judicial development (15130) (100.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (significant objective)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (not targeted)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• Nutrition (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

This project aims to support the Ukrainian government’s efforts to reform and strengthen its justice system through enhanced judicial independence, judicial self-governance, judicial professionalism, transparency and integrity. The project assists stakeholders of the judicial system to establish and entrench European and international standards and processes, develop new gender-neutral policies and court practices, and strengthen institutional and individual capacity in the application of uniform legal standards. The project also assists to clarify the separation of powers and roles and responsibilities of the different stakeholders. The project has three major components: (1) providing technical assistance to the Supreme Court of Ukraine to enhance and strengthen judicial independence; (2) providing technical assistance to the High Council of Justice and the Council of Judges to improve judicial accountability and enhance transparency, objectivity and integrity of judicial selection and discipline; and (3) providing technical assistance to the State Court Administration to improve court administration and communications between the public and tribunals, and collaboration between civil society and the public. Project activities include: (1) strengthening the institutional and human resources capacity of key judicial institutions, such as the Supreme Court, High Council of Justice, and High Qualification Commission of Judges; (2) developing policies and procedural frameworks for judicial selection, appointment, discipline and career management; (3) enhancing skills of chief judges in six target regions in effective court management, gender equality, judicial ethics and conflict resolution; (4) training of the staff of the State Court Administration in Kyiv and regional branches in effective and gender-sensitive court management; and (5) increasing court communication skills of the speaker-judges and court press secretaries in target regions. The project is implemented by the National Judicial Institute (NJI) of Canada and the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada.

The expected outcomes of the project include: (1) increased consistent and gender-sensitive application of the law by the Ukrainian court system; (2) enhanced transparency, objectivity (including gender-neutrality) and integrity of judicial selection and disciplinary procedures; and (3) increased effectiveness and client-responsiveness of court administration.

Results achieved as of March 2020 include: (1) the Supreme Court justices that were trained through the project have formed a working group to develop a judgement writing course, to enhance clarity and rational in Supreme Court judicial decisions. The course is to be delivered to the justices in the Supreme Court in the following year, and adapted for use in appellate and trial courts; (2) the selection of high level judges was enhanced according to objective, transparent, competitive and gender-sensitive procedures, 256 judges (of which 96 were women) were selected, through these improved mechanisms, for the top three courts in Ukraine: Supreme Court, High Anti-Corruption Court, and High Intellectual Property Court; (3) the effectiveness and client-responsiveness of court administration practices were improved through the training of 1,757 court administration officials (of which 1,055 were women); (4) a proposal of new legislation on criminal jurisdictions and Judicially Assisted Dispute Resolution (JADR) and organization of a JADR working group to promote the sustained implementation of this mechanism leading to more simplified resolutions to certain court cases and assist in reducing the caseload backlog was drafted; (5) the Standardized Business Continuity Plan and Emergency Response Protocols were adopted by the State Court Administration of Ukraine (SCAU) assisted courts in managing the continuation of court services with enhanced health, safety, and coronavirus (COVID-19) mitigation measures; and (6) an integrated approach to improved protection and treatment of domestic violence cases and parties in the pilot/model region was introduced, resulting in standardized interpretation of the new laws pertaining to DV cases, improved police and prosecution techniques, improved information sharing with judges for fair and consistent adjudication of cases.

• Proactive disclosure