ABOUT E-JUSTICE COMPONENT
Transparent judicial processes foster judicial accountability. Access to public hearings and published court decisions promote “legal certainty’ for the legal community and offer the free press and private citizens a clearer understanding of the inner workings of the judicial system without compromising judicial independence. As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis pointed out, “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants”, and “the individual citizen must in some way collect and spread the information.”
The Kosovo justice sector’s transparency obligations (ie. public hearings, access to court decisions, court and prosecutor performance, judge & prosecutor financial disclosure etc.) are enshrined in the Kosovo Constitution, the Law on Public Information and several other laws and regulations. However, the Kosovo justice sector’s failure to deliver on these transparency obligations keeps the public in the dark, frustrates the public’s ability to measure court efficiency and quality, and naturally contributes to public suspicions of a corrupt judiciary.
Lëvizja FOL is dedicated to shedding light on this matter by creating an e-justice platform that will display publicly available justice sector data in a user-friendly, searchable format. FOL will also invite and support justice partners in their efforts to meet transparency obligations, and will empower the public to monitor and assess the work of the courts. FOL’s process of creating and populating its e-justice platform will be informed by stakeholder interviews, legal research, and national discussions and debate.
Through this project, Lëvizja FOL will publish court hearing schedules and reasons for their cancellation, judicial acts including court orders, rulings and judgments of criminal, civil, commercial and administrative cases, in the basic courts of Pristina, Peja and Prizren. The E-Justice platform will be a key resource for judges, prosecutors, advocates, policy makers, academics, students and journalists and the wider public to, inter alia, research cases, analyze judicial reasoning, develop well-informed policies, study court practice, and scrutinize performance of judiciary, and others to be better informed.
Goal
The goal of the E-Justice component is to foster “legal certainty” and public oversight of the judiciary by publishing – in an on-line platform - information about court hearings, court judgments and decisions, and the performance of individual judges and prosecutors as well as courts and prosecutor offices. The E-Justice platform will also have user-friendly access to judges’ and prosecutors’ annual asset disclosure.
Objective 1
Develop a platform that will increase transparency of the judicial system of Kosovo.
Objective 2
Increase civic engagement in regards to the judicial sector
Objective 3
Increase “legal certainty” within Kosovo’s judicial system by publishing court decisions within a searchable database for advocates and academics
Objective 4
Encourage increased quality of judicial decision writing
In 2009, FOL Movement was officially registered as an independent NGO, based in Pristina. Its chief mission is to contribute to good governance and the prevention of corruption by supporting and promoting an active citizenry, and enhancing transparency and accountability within public institutions. FOL work focuses on monitoring public expenditure, fighting various forms of corruption and institutional negligence, and promoting accountability. FOL increases public pressure on government decision-makers to reduce abuse of public power through policy research, advocacy, technical and institutional support, monitoring of public institutions, conferences, seminars, roundtables and other forms of mobilization and networking, as well as debate and debate training programs. Additionally, FOL works to open up new channels of communication between government and citizens to reduce civic apathy.
FOL focuses on:
- FOL is deeply devoted on improving and achieving better levels of citizen representation in public life. FOL is committed for a better governance and founded on democratic principles, responsible, transparent and accountable institutions, and participating law enforcement and making.
- FOL, through research, education campaigns and advocacy will carry out activities that will help citizens and government get closer with the ultimate goal of increasing transparency and accountability.
- FOL fulfills its goals by fighting civic apathy and indifference, and making more active and voiced the citizen; make the citizen an active part of the community interest and always willing to oppose the abuse, misuse, corruption and other misconducts of governance. More about FOL can be found in: http://levizjafol.org/folnew/