Integrity Scan in Justice Sector

Prishtina, 14 December 2017 – Lëvizja FOL, CILC and KDI held today a conference where they presented the research data of the “The Integrity Scan in Justice Sector”. Panelists at this conference were: Gerrie Willems – The Ambassador of Netherlands in Kosovo, Eva Erren – Project Manager from the Center for International Legal Cooperation (CILC), Nehat Idrizi – Head of Kosovo Judicial Council, Blerim Isufaj – Chairperson of Kosovo Prosecutorial Council and Altin Ademi – Advisor to the Minister of Justice.

Jeton Zulfaj from Lëvizja FOL said that many reports so far have measured citizens’ perceptions of integrity in the justice system, but there have been reports that indicate the perception of judges and prosecutors themselves for the part of their system. “CILC, FOL and KDI have conducted a justice sector scan involving 229 judges and 112 prosecutors, in a research that for the first time points out sensitive parts of the justice sector,” said Zulfaj.

Gerrie Willems – Dutch Ambassador of Kosovo said that we have decided to support this project because the Netherlands attaches particular importance to strengthening the rule of law in Kosovo together with integrity as one of the key conditions for rule of law. “We must note that progress has been made, but there are still things to be done, although it is evident that there are many challenges that need to be overcome. That is what the EU, including the Netherlands, expects from Kosovo, to obey the rule of law, and to leave the principle that no one is above the law. Integrity in the justice system is very important because together with independence and impartiality are prerequisites for the creation of an effective and functional judiciary. I hope that this report, which provides detailed legal analysis and factual situation, will help the actors of the judicial system take steps to address integrity issues, “said Ambassador Willems.

Nehat Idrizi, chair of the KJC, said that the institution he leads has expressed friendly approach to initiatives for promoting integrity. “This report will also help us to improve the integrity of the justice system. The KJC has had many critics, but these are usually from people who are not sufficiently informed about the work of the KJC. We will take the recommendations of this report and try to implement them, to improve our work, “Idrizi said.

Eva Erren of CILC said that in all states where the rule of law functions, there are mechanisms to protect the core values of the justice system: Impartiality, independence and integrity. “With this report we are trying to address with a structured and systematic approach the challenges that the Judicial and Prosecutorial System encounter in Kosovo with regard to integrity,” said Erren, adding that the conclusions drawn from this report hope that they will together with all justice system actors, to take sweeping steps to find the best legal remedies to address the issue of integrity. Erren said that we expect that one of our next activities will be to change the ethics codes for the Judicial Council and the Prosecutorial Council in accordance with the findings of this report.

Blerim Isufaj, head of the KPC, said we are actively contributing to the development of training for prosecutors, so the media and civil society should be our partner in ways to improve the prosecution’s performance. “This research will be a good basis for KPC to enhance integrity in the justice system. We are committed to fight corruption by establishing a special institute on this issue. The legal framework is very much needed for good work, but the professional conditions as well as the professional staff is very necessary, “Isufaj said adding that 25 new prosecutors will complete the training now and from January 2018 will begin to deal with cases. Isufaj said that he will recruit 90 professional associates and legal officers as well as functionalize the electronic case management system.

Altin Ademi, advisor to the justice minister, said rule of law was priority for minister of justice. “There will be four laws in the package, part of this package is the law on the disciplinary responsibility of judges and prosecutors, which laws will serve to ensure full judicial independence and ensure the integrity and accountability of this system?”

Arben Kelmendi from KDI, said that earlier researches of KDI and FOL have highlighted the need for a more structured and systematic approach to address the challenges in the judicial and prosecutorial sector. “The findings in this report are a major contribution to the agenda in the legal reform in Kosovo,” said Kelmendi.

Meanwhile, Agon Maliqi presented the findings of this research and said that this particular study of integrity tried to understand how ethical standards within the judicial system are respected, including a third perspective. Namely, it aims to assess the respect of ethical and professional standards by examining the perceptions of key actors involved in the judicial system – namely judges and prosecutors.

Recommendations from the Integrity Scan in Justice Sector Research:

1. Public trust in the judiciary can only be regained through comprehensive reforms, but it can also par-tially improve through more effective communication and increased transparency. The KJC and KPC should work more effectively and more systematically with media and civil society to raise public awareness on internal integrity mechanisms and showcase positive cases. The KJC and KPC should also increase the level of transparency of disciplinary proceedings so that citizens receive sufficient information on the measures taken against prosecutors and judges. Also, courts should consider in-creasing communications to the public that better explain court procedures, applicable fees, reasons for procedural delays, and other issues that can be misinterpreted as corruption or increase the risk of corruption. The KJC should also consider issuing a charter of service that clearly informs citizens of the ethical commitment and standards applicable to judges and staff. Last but not least, creative public information campaigns or media stories illustrating internal accountability mechanics could somewhat help in bridging the gap between the perception from the outside and the perception from the inside the justice system.
2. Judges and prosecutors need to be further empowered to voice their concerns about integrity issues and to get involved in designing solutions. The KJC and KPC need to continue to create spaces for dia-logue and free expression so that the voice of those within the system who have objections can be heard. Anonymous integrity scans of this nature should be made periodic and with a consistent meth-odology so that those who are critical can express their objections and changes (improvements or re-gressions) can be measured year-on-year. In addition, judges and prosecutors need to be more in-volved in designing solutions to integrity challenges. The KJC and KPC, as well as court presidents and chief prosecutors should convene discussion meetings with judges/prosecutors and professional to discuss findings regarding the risks and vulnerabilities to corruption and design their own solutions to offset these perceptions or mitigate these risks and vulnerabilities.
3. Specific measures need to be taken to address external influences in the work of the judiciary from political, commercial or other interests. The Ministry of Justice and political leaders in general should take necessary steps to eliminate all doubts related to political interference in judiciary processes, in-cluding here refraining from making public statements about cases. Court presidents and the KJC should meet periodically with those responsible for court security and conduct a review of security measures. Chief prosecutors and KPC should do the same. Based on these reviews, detailed plans should be crafted and periodically updated to confront existing and future threats to the physical se-curity of judicial actors. Court presidents should institute periodic meetings among the judges and/or court staff to review measures that can decrease improper influence such as restricting the access of the public to judges’ private offices and screening all phone calls to judges.
4. There is space to improve process of recruitments and case assignments, as they are critical, among other things, in ensuring public trust in judicial outcomes. The KJC and KPC should use objective crite-ria, always based on merit and integrity, in the selection process of judges and prosecutors, as well as office staff. The KJC should also take further actions to randomize case assignments. Initial assign-ments to a judge should be done through an electronic system and the initial selection may then be adjusted by the court either to avoid potential conflicts or to allow related cases to be handled by the same judge. The KPC should also take further actions to inform the public regarding case assign-ments. While initial assignments to a prosecutor are at the discretion of the Chief Prosecutor, the ini-tial selection may then be adjusted by the prosecution office either to avoid potential conflicts or to allow related cases to be handled by the same prosecutor. Efforts should be made by both the KPC and KJC to communicate to the public reasons for re-assignment so they are understood as measures to mitigate conflicts of interest or improve efficiency rather than as means to manipulate case pro-cessing.
5. Codes of Ethics should be updated in order to expand the scope of issues covered and give clearer definitions, while trainings on ethics should become mandatory and periodical. A process of consulta-tions should be initiated to update the Codes of Ethics, as it is normal for documents of this nature to improve based on inputs from experiences. Consultations should take into account recommendations from judges and prosecutors on expanding the scope of issues with which they are faced with should clarify and unequivocally define specific situations. Some of the issues that could be clarified are those identified in this report’s survey. The Codes of Ethics should also be associated with explanatory mem-oranda. The KPC should consider making continuing legal education training on judicial ethics manda-tory on a set periodic basis (e.g., annually, every three years, etc.) for prosecutors and prosecution of-fice staff. Particular focus should be given to young judges and prosecutors. The KJC should consider something similar for judges and court staff, through something like the KBA Continuous Compulsory Legal Education Program. Both the KPC and KJC should also request continuous legal education train-ing on judicial ethics to the Academy of Justice that is based on needs identified by prosecutors and judges.
6. The technical capacities of the disciplinary mechanisms need to be strengthened, as do the trainings related to ethics. Both judiciary and prosecution attach low trust and confidence on the capabilities of ODC to carry out investigations, which begs the need to reform ODC. Efforts need to be undertaken to strengthen the technical capacities of the Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor (ODC). A mapping of capacity building needs would be a first start that would be followed by at least a training program to be offered and possible other measures to be undertaken by the disciplinary mechanisms. KJC and KPC need to take measures to inform and instruct young judges and prosecutors entering the system on the available mechanisms for consultation on ethical standards, as many seem to be uninformed. The Academy of Justice also needs to review its training program on ethics to reflect the concerns ex-pressed by judges and prosecutors.
7. General reforms in the justice sector should aim to reduce the high workload of judges and prosecu-tors, which increases stress to reach performance targets and creates incentives to cut corners on integ-rity issues. KJC and KPC should use their constitutional power as independent branches of government to ensure adequate resources (budget, physical infrastructure and human resources) as a means of not only improving general effectiveness, but also lowering high workload of judges and prosecutors. They also need to assess ways how to modify incentives so that judges and prosecutors don’t have to prioritize speed in resolving cases ahead of professional and integrity standards. An internal dialogue is needed on how to balance performance measurement so as not to be overtly focused on number of cases solved but also include quality components related to ethical standards.