The head of the public association Center of Initiatives and Public Authorities Monitoring, lawyer Ion Dron said it’s time to abandon the “justice sector reform” and to adopt a new approach - the transformation of the judicial system. “We reform and reform, but achieved no result. This system reached a stage when it should be transformed as the reforms until now produced no result,” Ion Dron stated in an interview for IPN.
According to the lawyer, even the justice sector reform strategy of 2011 wasn’t adopted based on a solid study. It does not have a solid research foundation as regards the priority sectors. “It was drafted as a technical document in order to get money from the West, which was offered at that moment. Those from the West said that we need a document for which this money would be provided. Our Moldovans designed this document called strategy,” said Ion Dron.
He noted that three essential things are needed to succeed in reforming justice, namely political will, view on the reform and management capacities for implementing the view. “Today we have nether political will, nor view on the justice sector reform. When these two elements are absent, it’s hard to determine if there are management capacities. I think we have management capacities, but no one made use of them as no one was interested. We ultimately turned the Republic of Moldova into a factory that daily produces all kinds of reports. The justice sector reform is an industry that delivers reports as the planned reforms lack an essential thing – the impact assessment criterion,” stated Ion Dron.
“I think and I made a call in 2011 – to manage to do reforms in justice, we need several things that weren’t done. We need to secure a minimal consensus at the system reform stage, either we reform the judicial system or the prosecution service. An initial consensus with those who will be the players of the reformation process is needed for any reform.”
According to him, the Ministry of Justice starting with 2011 hasn’t had a leader who would have ensured the credibility of the system that is to be reformed. Moreover, the groups that drafted those bills and reforms didn’t have a leader around whom to unite the intellectual resources, experts. No representative of the state went out to tell the people that they assume responsibility, the failure of the justice sector reform as a minister or as a secretary of state.
The lawyer also said that all the governments try to keep the hand on buttons and to control the situation so as to try and suffocate someone by their power. But they also suffer as a result as the mechanisms they build finally annihilate them too. “Those who are now fugitives benefit from the reforms or results of the system they built. And it seems to them that they build a very good system. But it is an illusion to believe that you are safe when you are above a system. You cannot always remain above the system. When you leave, the system becomes a butcher for you too,” stated Ion Dron.
The interview entitled “How much injustice is there in the Republic of Moldova at present? What are the roots, forms of injustice and solutions for combating it?” was conducted as part of IPN’s project “Injustice revealed through multimedia”.
