Demand for Justice Program and Kosovo Bar Association organize a Central Bench-Bar/Civil Society Round-table on Anti-Corruption Day
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December 9, 2016
Demand for Justice Program and Kosovo Bar Association organize a Central Bench-Bar/Civil Society Roundtable on Anti-Corruption Day
Pristina, 9 December 2016 - The Demand for Justice (D4J) Program celebrated Anti-Corruption Day in Kosovo with the Kosovo Bar Association (KBA) by introducing a range of justice sector monitoring projects designed to foster more accountability, transparency, and integrity within the justice sector while educating and inspiring Kosovo’s citizens to fulfill their key “demand” role in this effort. U.S Ambassador to Kosovo H.E. Greg Delawie introduced the D4J Program at the KBA 2016 Central Bench-Bar meeting. Though typically a forum for justice sector actors to discuss and resolve barriers to effective court operation, the KBA opened its Bench-Bar forum to civil society organizations (CSO) known for publicly critiquing the justice system in Kosovo. The CSOs took this opportunity to move the debate from critique to action by presenting D4J projects designed to fill “access to justice”, “transparency”, and “integrity” gaps in Kosovo’s justice system.
Ambassador Delawie summarized the goal of the D4J Program by stating that:
Citizen’s access to justice and the integrity and accountability of judicial institutions are critical elements to delivering fully on the promise of Rule of Law in Kosovo. The United States is proud to support Kosovo’s civil society, bar association, and judicial institutions, as you work together to build a more democratic Kosovo.”
Corruption affects the economy. It is an obstacle to the Rule of Law. Even more (...) Corruption undermines and destroys trust in the system, in the government, in institutions. How can we have functioning institutions when there is no trust? Corruption destroys the state.”
Addressing Access to Justice—Following a presentation of 2016 Bench/Bar achievements, D4J partners introduced the core of the D4J monitoring activities. The Kosovo Legal Institute (KLI) announced its plans to monitor criminal cases to expose the “representation gap” robbing indigent defendants of their right to legal defense under the European Convention for Human Rights. And, in recognition of this representation gap, KBA advocate Artan Qerkini presented the KBA-D4J pilot “live” legal clinic program in which KBA advocates are providing pro-bono defense services to Kosovo’s indigent defendants with support from law students interested in gaining clinical legal experience. A spirited debate on the subject of funding advocates to fill this representation gap and improve access to justice ensued.
Strengthening Judicial Integrity—Levizja FOL took the floor to present its “open government E-platform” for the justice sector – offering the judges, prosecutors and advocates an opportunity to ensure individual accountability by publishing judgments, decisions, hearing schedules, and causes for hearing cancellations. Finally, the Kosovo Democracy Institute (KDI) introduced its project to implement a “Judicial Integrity Initiative” survey which will enable judges, prosecutors, police and advocates to anonymously expose mechanisms of corruption or barriers to integrity. Each of these D4J project presentations triggered a spirited debate amongst advocates, judges, prosecutors and police, and CSO’s focused on improving accountability, transparency, and integrity in the justice sector.
The Demand for Justice Program is a five-year initiative funded by the U.S. Department of State/INL and implemented by the National Center for State Courts to support the development of robust, evidence-driven demand for justice in Kosovo. Through D4J, NCSC is mobilizing CSO partners to act as agents of change to foster accountability, transparency, and integrity in the justice sector. For more information, see www.demandforjustice.org.
