The President of Ukraine appointed Oksana Blazhivska as a member of the High Council of Justice

On September 30, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, appointed Oksana Blazhivska as a member of the High Council of Justice, despite the concerns of civil society representatives.

DEJURE Foundation, Automaidan and Anti-corruption Action Center analyzed all candidates that took part in the competition to the High Council of Justice (HCJ): their wealth, activities and e-declarations.

We have identified those who cannot be a member of the HCJ under any circumstances due to lack of integrity. The presidential commission recommended 6 candidates to Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He had to appoint two of them. Civil society representatives did not have any concerns about four of them. Alas, the President has selected one of two candidates with dubious reputation.

According to the asset declaration, Oksana Blazhivska lives in an apartment of 110 square meters, which is registered on her daughter. At the same time, she declaired jewelry, works of art and icons. Considering that only property worth more than UAH 170,000 is a subject to declaring in this category, we assume the total value of objects declared by Oksana Blazhivska is more than UAH 1 million.

Since 2011, she drives her father’s Jeep Grand Cherokee, which has not been declared from 2014 to 2016.

“This situation again shows that the Office of the President is now focusing more on the representatives of the old judiciary system than on the agents of changes from public sector or judges who are known for their independence.

The only way out of this is to replace the entire High Council of Justice with the help of international partners. This was repeatedly promised by both the President himself and his political party.”

Mykhailo Zhernakov

“Personally, this presidential decree is a kind of ‘red marker’ for the two sides of this process. For the authorities that are not going or unable at this stage to radically treat the legal system of the state, which is in a state of ongoing collapse, and decided only to change the names. And for civil activists and the media who were not interested in this competition to the High Council of Justice. No one asked or analyzed any protocol of the competition commission. No one analyzed the video of interviews with the contestants and the voting procedure of the commission members on 6 nominations that were recommended to the President.”

Volodymyr Sushchenko

Last week, public experts also called for a revision of the Presidential Bill on judicial government in order to restart the High Council of Justice, to increase the influence of international experts on the selection panel of the High Qualification Commission of Judges and the ethics committee, and to review the Supreme Court judges who were appointed despite the negative opinion of the Public Integrity Council.