The scheme works: The Bar Council recommended candidates to the Selection Commission for the High Qualification Commission of Judges

Who will select the judges who will administer justice for decades? Spoiler: the same people who for years blocked reform.

A competition is now underway for the new Selection Commission, which will choose members of the High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ). It is the HQCJ that will select more than 2,000 judges in the coming years. And the face of the judiciary for decades to come depends on who enters this commission.

However, instead of international experts, who have proven their effectiveness in appointments to anti-corruption bodies, members of the Selection Commission may become representatives of bodies that have long obstructed the reform of the judicial system. Among them is the Bar Council, headed by Lidiia Izovitova, an associate of Medvedchuk and Portnov. Let’s not forget: when she had influence over the appointment of judges as part of the High Council of Justice, her own children became judges.

And here are those the Bar Council has recommended this time:

• Oleksii Shevchuk. Lawyer of the scandalous Korban, Kyva, Dubnevych, and judges of the District Administrative Court of Kyiv, including Pavlo Vovk. A figure in journalistic investigations into corruption schemes for men’s departure abroad through the “Shliakh” system. A spokesperson of the UNBA under Izovitova, known for compiling “denunciations” on journalists who criticised the bar.

  He registered the trademark “Sudovyi Reporter” and a similar website despite the fact that such a media outlet already existed, and demanded money from its founder for “transferring the project.” Shevchuk also publicly called civil activists “moronic grant-eaters” and threatened residents of his gardening cooperative with a weapon during a conflict over a barrier. The Ethics Council assessed these and other actions when Shevchuk applied for a position in the High Council of Justice. He received a negative decision. Even the Qualification and Disciplinary Commission of the Bar of Kyiv Oblast recognised that he committed disciplinary offences (although in most such cases it closed proceedings due to time limits).

• Oksana Kadenko and Hanna Kolesnyk. Both have many inaccuracies in their declarations, including non-declaration of property and memberships in organisations. Both indicate very low incomes from legal practice, which likely do not correspond to their standard of living. Both are also close to Lidiia Izovitova. Whether these candidates received any guarantees from Izovitova remains an open question.

The next word is with the High Council of Justice. It is this body that will select one member of the Selection Commission from among these three candidates. The consequences of this decision may be fatal for the entire judicial reform. Because if the old elites again gain control over the selection of judges, we will return to the times of backroom appointments – when a judicial seat was obtained not for integrity, but for family ties or loyalty.

To prevent such a development, MPs registered Draft Law No. 13382, which came as a response to the statement of 90 NGOs and reinstates the participation of international experts in the Selection Commission. Despite this, the document remains under consideration in the Verkhovna Rada’s Legal Policy Committee and, unfortunately, is not progressing. European Commission spokesman Guillaume Mercier also supported the return of international experts to the Selection Commission for selecting members of the HQCJ. MPs and the Office of the President must make a choice today: to heed the demands of civil society and partners or to “ignore the elephant in the room” and continue supporting the rollback to old rules.