It was also fortuitous that through the panel I met Judge Margarita Tsatsa-Nikolovska, a former judge on the European Court of Human Rights, the President of the Institute for Human Rights and Judge on the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The Institute for Human Rights recently organized a conference to present the Second Monitoring Report about the Judicial Council of the Republic of Macedonia, and Judge Tsatsa-Nikolovska invited me to attend.
From the invite: "The main subject for discussion will be the transparency and
accountability in the processes of appointment and disciplinary actions against judges as well as the presentation of the Second monitoring report of the Institute for Human Rights about the work of the Judicial council and the Council for determination
of facts. This public event is part of the project "Increased Public Oversight over the Work of the Judicial Council of the Republic of Macedonia" supported by the British Embassy Skopje. The project’s overall
objective is to familiarize the public with the work of the Judicial
Council of RM and thus increase transparency in its work, furthering
public accountability based on arguments."
See the website of the Institute for Human Rights: http://www.ihr.org.mk/
and the Facebook page of the Institute for Human Rights IHR facebook page
Both have links to the full monitoring report about the Judicial Council.
Since you have access to the monitoring reports on the website, I thought I would share with you some of the comments of Judge Ranko Marijan, Judge at the Supreme Court of Republic of Croatia and
former member and president of the Judicial Council of the Republic of Croatia, who spoke about the Selection and disciplinary proceedings of judges in the Republic of Croatia.
The Croatian experience can provide a relevant comparative perspective - from a fellow former Yugoslav republic, now a member of NATO and the European Union - from which one could generate ideas for reforms in the Republic of Macedonia.
The system of judicial selection, promotion, and discipline that Judge Marijan described is so very different from the American experience. Although the goal of promoting judicial independence and the belief in the importance of trust in the judiciary is shared.
Judge Marijan described the Judicial Council, its composition, the mandate of the members, and the process of evaluation of judges (that involves a point system -- how many cases were decided? were the deadlines respected? were the decisions of high quality? how many cases were later annulled? ) It would be interesting to see the score sheet that is used by the Council
Informative and important presentations combined with robust discussions made this a valuable conference.
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| with Judge Margarita Tsatsa Nikolovska |
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| with Judge Ranko Marijan, Judge at the Supreme Court of Republic of Croatia and former member and president of the Judicial council of Republic of Croatia |
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| the speakers: Sasho Pocevski (President of the Council for Determination of Facts), Judge Ranko Marijan, Judge Margarita Tsatsa-Nikolovska, Vladtko Samardziski (Member of the Judicial Council) and Kristina Doda (Project Coordinator, Institute for Human Rights) |
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| (photo credit: the IHR facebook page) |
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| the view from the balcony of the Arka Hotel |
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| our short coffee break was outside the conference room on this balcony - lovely views |
website of the Arka Hotel: https://hotelarka.mk/
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