Ukrainian justice has a bad reputation. The trust in the judiciary remains critically low – an opinion poll from late 2016 found only 37% of Ukrainians trust the judicial system. After the Euromaidan revolution, Ukraine received the chance to change it. The judicial reform was personally launched by President Petro Poroshenko. Now, the process of forming the key judiciary institution, the Supreme Court, is ongoing. So far the situation does not look bright – 30 out of 120 candidates to it admitted in having bad reputation. However, it still can be changed. The last words in the selection are said by the High Council of Justice and then the president.
Some in Ukraine reckon that a quarter of dishonest judges in the Supreme Court is actually is not a bad result – it could have been worse. However, the cases in which these judges were involved suggest the situation is quite serious.
The professional ethics and integrity of the judges were assessed by the Public Integrity Council. The body was created to assist the High Qualification Commission of Judges in evaluating judges. The Public Integrity Council (PIC) had two kinds of conclusions. First, an “opinion” which means there exist proven facts that the candidate doesn’t fit the criteria. Second, “information,” which casts a shadow on the reputation of a judge, but does not contain evidence of misconduct.
Those 30 in the list received negative opinions, meaning there is evidence of their misconduct. The cases are different – starting from unjustified assets and ending with political prosecution.
/Video: Anna Naronina, video script: Olena Makarenko, Alya Shandra
Edited by: Alya Shandra
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Olena Makarenko is a journalist at Euromaidan Press. In 2014, Olena started working as a volunteer on public initiatives focusing on building civil society and promoting dialogue between people from different regions of Ukraine.
