Lëvizja FOL Debuts its Judicial Transparency Game-changer

Prishtina, May 11, 2017 – As part of the Demand for Justice (D4J) Program, Lëvizja FOL has unveiled its E-Justice (www.egjykata.org) platform as a “game-changing”, online tool in Kosovo’s push for justice sector transparency, accountability and integrity.  E-Justice platform offers all citizens and media outlets an unprecedented opportunity to research court decisions across thirteen categories, keep updated on court hearings and cancellations, and monitor individual judge wealth.

During Lëvizja FOL’s E-Justice platform presentation before Kosovo’s legal community, media, and civil society actors – Gersi Gashi explained a new reality for Kosovo – that advocates, judges, students, journalists, policy makers and the wider public will now be able to research cases, analyze judicial reasoning, develop well-informed policies, study court practice, and scrutinize judicial performance.  With 700 decisions currently searchable via cross tabulation over 13 categories, FOL predicts that the platform will become more useful as Courts will have to ramp up efforts to uphold their legal obligations to publish court decisions.  Courts currently topping the list of most court decisions published are the basic courts of Prishtina, Prizren and Gjilan, while the basic courts of Mitrovica, Peja, and Gjakova have the least number of decisions published”, Gashi said.

With regard to Judge asset disclosure, the E-Justice platform utilizes powerful software to greatly enhance public access to volumes of raw asset declaration data by transforming it into visual, actionable information, fostering media and public analysis and understanding of fluctuations in the wealth of the judicial community – Kosovo’s guardian for the Rule of Law.

The E-Justice platform is also expected to enhance public judicial oversight by listing court-by-court hearing schedules, and offering each Court’s Public Information Officer an easy path to sharing information with the public about each judge’s court hearing cancellations and the reasons for such cancellations.

E-Justice platform was launched as part of the D4J Program led by NCSC in partnership with a diverse group of committed local partners. The platform continues to be populated with data by a group of D4J interns selected from the law student community.  The platform complements the ongoing efforts of local and international stakeholders working for a stronger transparency mechanism in the justice sector in Kosovo. Through this project, Lëvizja FOL is also advocating legal changes needed to streamline publication of all public judicial information.

Demand for Justice Program aims to empower citizens demand for justice in Kosovo. This program is implemented by NCSC and supported by the US Department of State/INL.