European expertise for effective coordination of justice reform activities

Lviv oblast has become one of the first to launch the Regional Judiciary Reform Council to implement the justice sector reform through the delivery of regional-specific challenges and their decisions to the level of central bodies. The “Pravo-Justice” project, which supports the reform of the justice sector, organized the first meeting of the Lviv Regional Judiciary Reform Council Meeting on November 14.

The first meeting of the Regional Judiciary Reform Council marked the strengthening of support for reforms in the regions of the EU "Pravo-Justice" Project in cooperation with profile institutions and field experts.

Opening the meeting, Roksolana Kostur, Head of the Ukrainian Bar Association in Lviv Oblast, noted the need to cooperate with Kyiv: "Previously, we could observe the lack of cooperation not only between the regions, but also with Kyiv. We were getting legislation and we had to work with it "

The Lviv Regional Council for Justice Reform has united key stakeholders: representatives of the judiciary, prosecutor's offices, lawyers' community, justice, private enforcement agencies, human rights representatives, CSOs, experts from the EU "Pravo-Justice” Project and academia to coordinate actions on the reform of the judicial system.

According to Dovidas Viskauskas, Head of the EU "Pravo-Justice", the creation of the Lviv Regional Judiciary Reform Council will facilitate the establishment of feedback from the regions to improve policies that are usually developed at the central level.

At a meeting of the Lviv Regional Council on Justice Reform, participants noted the importance of civil society organizations in informing citizens about the implementation of the reform. The members of the council agreed that it would be desirable to encourage the discussion of representatives of not only the scientific community, but also students.

The participants of the meeting expressed their readiness to cooperate closely with international experts of the EU-funded project "Justice-Justice on the results and prospects of private executives, bankruptcy procedures, business registration issues, judicial independence and legal education standards."

Regional councils for reforms in the area of ​​justice will operate in Chernivtsi, Odesa, Lviv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk oblasts. Among the participants in the regional councils, there is no priority in justice reform, members have equal rights and opportunities. Representatives of the Chernivtsi and Odesa oblast councils presented the experience of holding constituent meetings in their regions.

Lviv Regional Judiciary Reform Council Meetings will take place every 10 weeks for systematic work on issues of relevance to the regions.