The Full Composition of the HQCJ Formed
The High Council of Justice formed the full composition of the HQCJ, which unblocked and continued the qualification assessment of judges and competitive recruitment for vacant positions of judges.
The High Council of Justice formed the full composition of the HQCJ, which unblocked and continued the qualification assessment of judges and competitive recruitment for vacant positions of judges.
The formation of a new composition of the High Qualification Commission of Judges in 2023 became an important milestone of the judicial reform. The members are appointed by the HCJ. It is the HQCJ that carries out competitive recruitment of new judges and that is yet to complete the qualification assessment of about 2,000 judges, which may result in dismissals of many of them.
On the eve of the vote on candidates for the HQCJ, there were many messages that the HCJ may not select all the 16 members of the Commission, which would significantly damage its institutional capacity and ability to issue decisions.
The public also had remarks regarding the competitive recruitment of HQCJ members: it was unclear why only 64 candidates out of more than 300 were admitted to the next stage, not all stages of verification were sufficiently transparent (for example, the candidates’ explanations regarding issues with their integrity which the candidates filed to the selection commission were not published, even though the candidates themselves consented to such publications), and afterward, the HCJ decisions on appointments or rejections of potential HQCJ members essentially did not contain any explanations. At the same time, the HCJ knowingly refrained from selecting strong leaders from civil society or from the judicial community for the HQCJ, which is already visible in the Commission’s work.
One way or another, the HCJ did select all 16 members of the HQCJ, which “unblocked” the qualification assessment of judges and paved the way for new competitive recruitment of judges in the future.
