We call on the High Council of Justice to broadcast the interviews with candidates for the High Qualification Commission of Judges

On March 28, the High Council of Justice approved the Methodology for interviewing, selecting and appointing candidates for the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine. With this document, the HCJ established that interviews with candidates would not be broadcast live. Instead, recordings of interviews will be published after the completion of interviews with all candidates.

We believe that this approach does not meet the requirements of the law and does not contribute to public trust in the selection results. The law clearly establishes that the HCJ conducts interviews with candidates for the HQCJ openly. The broadcast of interviews is an indispensable component of the openness of the process of formation of the new composition of the HQCJ. It allows society to follow the process and creates an atmosphere of openness and trust in its results. Public trust in the new HQCJ is all the more important since it will be responsible for the selection of judges for more than 2,000 vacancies, as well as the completion of qualification assessment. The high-quality composition of the HQCJ will determine the fate of the judiciary of Ukraine for decades to come. Public trust in the process of its formation is absolutely necessary not only for the success of the reform. The perspective of Ukraine’s membership in the European Union will directly depend on it. 

In the Methodology, the HCJ noted that it will not conduct live broadcasts “to ensure equal conditions for all candidates who are interviewed on different days.” We believe that such an approach is unjustified because the public interest in the openness of the process outweighs any potential harm that a live broadcast may cause. In addition, the Selection Commission, which carried out the selection of candidates, broadcast all interviews with candidates in real-time. In recent years, live broadcasting of interviews with candidates during open competitions for high government positions has become a common practice. Neither the society nor the contestants had any doubts that such an approach could put the candidates in unequal conditions. Therefore, we consider the position of the HCJ to be completely inconsistent and one that will harm public trust in the process of the formation of a new composition of the HQCJ.

In this regard, we call on the HCJ to make changes to its Methodology and ensure live broadcasts of interviews with all candidates for the HQCJ.

Signed by:

DEJURE Foundation

Anti-corruption Action Centre

Automaidan

Human Rights Centre ZMINA

StateWatch

NGO “Anti-corruption Headquarters”

Transparency International Ukraine

CHESNO Movement

ACREC

Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group

Centre for Economic Strategy

NGO Public Control Platform

Center for Civil Liberties