On September 26, 2023, the Chairman of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine Roman Ihnatov, the Deputy Chairman of the Commission Ruslan Sydorovych and the Head of the Secretariat of the Commission Olena Ponomarenko held a meeting with the Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy Denys Maslov and the Director of the Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment (UCEQA) Tetiana Vakulenko.
The Deputy Head of the USAID “Justice for All” Program Nataliia Petrova, former Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Liliia Hrynevych, Commission members Nadiia Kobetska, Roman Sabodash, Oleh Koliush, Vitalii Hatseliuk and Oleksii Omelian also took part in the meeting.
The purpose of the event in such an expanded format was to discuss the issues of improving the conduct of anonymous written test and fulfillment of a practical assignment to identify the level of knowledge, practical skills and abilities in law application, the ability to administer justice.
The Chairman of the Commission Roman Ihnatov introduced the current and future needs of test tools for the purposes of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine to the audience. He mentioned that the Commission was expecting to receive the assistance of international technical assistance projects in developing and approving the Terms of Reference for updating and expanding the test base. What is more, the USAID “Justice for All” Program is expected to be able to provide support in organising the work of a group of testers.
The Director of the Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment Tetiana Vakulenko told the participants of the meeting about the peculiarities of the Center’s work and technical capabilities.
During the event, the need to change the Law of Ukraine “On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges” regarding the improvement of the procedures for judges selection developed by the Committee on Legal Policy was also discussed.
Bear in mind that Ukraine has recently received a list of priority reforms from the United States of America related to the conditions for providing assistance. In particular, it contains a clause regarding the need to relaunch the selection and qualification evaluation of judges by the newly established High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine with the Public Integrity Council participating actively.
In particular, the above recommendation proposes to amend legislation in order to improve the judge’s selection by optimising the stages of the competition, to review the duration of mandatory training of judges, to approve and promulgate normative legal acts, to formulate clear assessment criteria and to develop a scoring methodology.
