In the 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index, Ukraine’s indicators increased by 3 points, and with a score of 33, the country ranks 117 out of 180 countries. High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC), the establishment and development of which has been facilitated by the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative (EUACI), has been named one of its primary precursors’ progress according to the Executive Director of TI Ukraine Andrii Borovyk.
This denotes the essential role the HACC plays in Ukraine’s anti-corruption infrastructure and the continuous need to support enhancing its institutional efficiency and the process of administration of justice.
In this light, the recently published Report of Transparency International Ukraine on the results of monitoring the HACC’s work again highlights the high level of trust in the Court observed by other participants of the criminal proceedings and the professional competence of both judges and staff of the Court.
Simultaneously, the Report developed based on results of observing more than 311 court hearings and monitoring 68 proceedings describes noticeable trends in the work of the Court and envisages recommendations to various stakeholders on how to address the challenges identified related to the administration of justice and including enhancement of the work of court administrators, institutional efficiency and questions of upholding the standards of procedural ethics during the court proceedings.
Eka Tkeshelashvili, EUACI Head of Program, commented on the results of the TI monitoring:
“The High Anti-Corruption Court was fully operational on September 5, 2019. Its establishment completed the development of Ukraine’s anti-corruption infrastructure. EUACI contributed to the establishment of the Court and put a lot of effort into assisting the institutional capacity development of HACC. We sometimes tend to forget that HACC is still a very young institution; however, after just a little over one year of its operation, it has already become the best practice example of judicial reform in Ukraine”.
The results of the monitoring can be found at the following links: in English and Ukrainian.
Transparency International Ukraine will carry out the next phase of monitoring the High Anti-Corruption Court’s work under the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative’s support in 2021. Findings provided in the Report and the continuous monitoring of work of HACC allow engaging in an open and constructive dialogue and providing targeted technical assistance to the High Anti-Corruption Court to develop its capacities and increase institutional stability and sustainability.
