The EU Project Pravo-Justice aworded the winners of the "Model Court of the Year" competition

On December 10, the EU Project Pravo-Justice within the framework of the Model Courts Initiative aworded the winners of eight nominations of the "Model Court of the Year" competition.

The competition was attended by courts of various instances from all regions of Ukraine, which presented their model developments and best solutions, in particular, in such areas as access to justice for vulnerable court users, implementation of volunteer services in the court, communication activities of the court, HR management, court administration, court security.

According to the results of the competition, the winners in the nominations were:

• Model Court of the Year - Ingulets District Court of Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region;
• Access to justice for vulnerable court users - Vugledar city court of Donetsk region
• The best volunteer service in the court - Ternopil district court of Ternopil region;
• The best communication activity - Zarichnyi District Court of Sumy;
• The best HR management service - Mukachevo District Court of Zakarpattia region;
• The best court security measures - Donetsk Court of Appeal;
• Court administrator of the year - Mykola Pasichnyk, chief of staff of the Dolynskyi district court of Ivano-Frankivsk region.

The special award of the "Model Courts" Initiative "Inspiration of the Year" was awarded to:

• Nataliya Korol - chief of staff of the Vinnytsia Court of Appeal;
• Olena Bezborodova - chief of staff of the Leninsky district court of Kharkiv;
• Svitlana Shevchenko - head of the Territorial Department of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine in the Kyiv region.

During the "Model Court of the Year" event, Larisa Rogach, secretary of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, noted that the Supreme Court is also involved in the implementation of the Model Courts Initiative.

"I want to thank the EU Project Pravo-Justice for its support and attention to the development of the judiciary in Ukraine. The Supreme Court, in its turn, works a lot on the issue of ensuring the safety of judges and court staff, in particular, thanks to the development of electronic justice. This especially applies to the frontline territories," - said Larisa Rogach.

Maksym Dyrdin, member of Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy of Ukraine, congratulated the winners of the competition and the participants of the event and noted that the MP’s are currently working on a number of legislative initiatives to improve the efficiency of the judiciary.

Bohdan Monich, Head of the Council of Judges of Ukraine, prized the development of the Model Courts Initiative.

"The Initiative, which currently has 76 courts, should continue to expand and involve as many courts as possible, which will implement best practices and model solutions. Unfortunately, many of the courts participating in the competition are currently destroyed or badly damaged. However, I am sure that together we will rebuild everything taking into account the model solutions", - said Bohdan Monich.

Oleksiy Salnikov, Head of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, thanked for the organized event, which managed to gather representatives of courts from all over Ukraine.

"Given the contribution of the Project, the philosophy of the court is changing, a client-oriented approach is being implemented in the provision of court services, people's attitude towards the court is changing. At the same time, despite the war and destruction, we must unite and do everything we can to continue moving forward and change the judicial system of Ukraine for the better together. There is a lot of work ahead," - stressed Oleksiy Salnikov.

In turn, Anna Adamska-Gallant, the Key international expert on judicial reform of the EU Project Pravo-Justice, emphasized that the dedication and hard work of the employees of the judicial system of Ukraine has already become an example and inspiration for colleagues from all over the world.

"It is a great honor to be with you today and celebrate the achievements of all the winners and nominees of the "Model Court of the Year" contest. After all, this is a recognition not only of the titanic work done earlier to improve the provision of court services, but also a recognition of your heroic work to ensure access to justice for the citizens of Ukraine in the conditions of war," - noted Anna Adamska-Gallant.

During the event, Oleksiy Salnikov and Anna Adamska-Gallant presented the collection of stories "Courts in conditions of war", which was created within the framework of the special project of the SJAU and the EU Project Pravo-Justice.

In addition, at the end of the event, the chiefs of staff of courts participating in the Model Courts Initiative presented the newly created public organization "All-Ukrainian Association of Court Employees", which will help create a platform for spreading the best practices of court administration and relevant model solutions developed within the Initiative.