Monday, 1 April 2019, National School of Judges (NSJ) supported by international donors including the European Union Anti-Corruption Initiative (EUACI), kick-started the orientation and training programme for the judges recommended for the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) and HACC Appellate Chamber.
The three-week training programme aims to provide judges recommended for the HACC with the necessary advanced skills for their work at the High Anti-Corruption Court, passing on EU best practices for handling anti-corruption cases. During the programme, the judges will familiarize themselves with issues concerning criminal substantive and procedural law related to the jurisdiction of the High Anti-Corruption Court, with a particular focus on managing complex multi-defendant corruption cases.
EUACI provides its expertise and technical assistance in the areas such as human resource development and management, IT, court security, infrastructure as well as strategic communications. The training programme for the HACC judges includes 5 days of induction and 10 days of intensive workshops. EUACI contributed to several blocks of the training, including training modules on standards of human rights protection in the course of criminal adjudication of corruption-related cases. Experts engaged by EUACI will also conduct trainings on different issues related to jurisdiction of the HACC and anti-corruption standards and concepts.
“Establishment of HACC has been one of the key focus areasof EUACI’s work. EUACI has been assisting Ukrainian counterparts at the strategic as well as operational level and we are proud to be at the forefront in setting up and building capacities of the HACC from the very beginning. With this intensive inception training programme, we aim to give judgesrecommended for the HACC all the tools and expert knowledge needed to adjudicate complex high-level corruption cases and to serve as independent judges in one of the most important judicial bodies of Ukraine,” said Eka Tkeshelashvili, Head of EU Anti-Corruption Initiative.
Apart from the EUACI experts, the pool of experts involved in the training course includes international as well as national experts provided by the EUAM, USAID New Justice Program, the EU project PRAVO-Justice, the Ukrainian-Canadian project Support to Judicial Reform and the National School of Judges of Ukraine.
The training and orientation programme for the judges recommended for the HACC is an important milestone for the establishment of this anti-corruption body. The judges recommended for the HACC have been selected among 113 candidates that successfully passed the selection process effectively assisted by the Public Council of International Experts. It is expected that the HACC will become fully operational by June 2019.
