Representatives of a number of nongovernmental organizations consider the legislation amendment proposals submitted by the initiative group of the Center for Reform in the Judicial System, which was launched by a group of judges in May, are promoted in an inexplicable hurry. A part of the proposals submitted by the judges are not envisioned by the justice sector reform strategy, while some of them even run counter to it. Others are inapplicable or are even dangerous for Moldova.
In a news conference at IPN on June 18, Vlad Gribincea, director of the Legal Resources Center of Moldova, said the justice sector reform strategy is a public policy document that should be used by all the decision makers in the area of reforms in the justice sector as guidance. The implementation of the strategy is also mandatory for implementing the Association Agreement with the EU.
Some of the proposals, such as to levy the state tax when the trial is over, not at its beginning, will lead to fewer incomes collected into the state budget. The expert of Promo-LEX Association Pavel Postica said it’s not clear why they insist on such a thing at a time when about 60% of the irrevocable decisions are not implemented. Thus, the state tax will be collected only in the case of the other 40%.
The representatives of the NGOs also referred to the lack of an analysis of the costs and argumentation for the submitted proposals. Head of the Anticorruption Alliance Olga Bitca said that each amendment proposal must be based on a professional study and academic analysis. “Most of these proposals are not based on solid justification. Some of them are even dangerous and run counter to important documents governing now the justice reform,” she stated.
The NGOs fully support only the proposal to include trainers of the EU member states into the personnel of the National Institute of Justice. Another five proposals are supported in principle, but not in the proposed form and content. As regards the other proposals, the Center for Reform in the Judicial System is urged to give them up.
The NGOs that subscribe to this position are Amnesty International – Moldova, Promo-LEX, the Association for Participatory Democracy, the Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance, the Foreign Policy Association and another 13 nongovernmental organizations.
