The Parliament adopted the draft law № 5068 on the reform of the High Council of Justice

A separate body with international experts will be established in Ukraine to check the integrity of members of the High Council of Justice and the HCJ candidates. The draft law was supported by 259 MPs.

The draft law № 5068 stipulates that the current members and the candidates to the High Council of Justice will be checked for integrity by a new body – the Ethics Council with the participation of international experts.

If the Ethics Council finds that the HCJ member does not meet the integrity criteria, he or she will automatically be removed from office. The authority of such an HCJ member may then be confirmed by the appointing body: the congresses of judges, lawyers, prosecutors and legal scholars, the President or the Parliament.
If the relevant congress does not confirm the authority of the HCJ member by a majority of votes, he or she shall be dismissed from the High Council of Justice.

“The MPs heeded the calls of the leading NGOs and created a really effective model of cleansing the High Council of Justice. We expect that the President will not delay the signing of the draft law and we will have time to cleanse the High Council of Justice, which is now the main stopper of judicial reform, “

-says Mykhailo Zhernakov, Chair of the Board of the DEJURE Foundation