Belarusian FM ignores participation in the program "Enhancing Judicial Reform in the EaP Countries"

The Council of Europe is carrying out a large-scale joint program entitled “Enhancing Judicial Reform in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) Countries” on behalf of the European Union. Its purpose is convergence of legal systems of the Eastern Partnership countries with the Council of Europe and the EU standards.

The format of the program involves a series of expert meetings on issues of potential reforming of the specific elements of national legal systems.

According to the results of the expert meetings, there is being prepared a detailed report, combined on the comparative research principle. Leading European experts in the field of legal reforms analyze the data on national legal systems and make recommendations about how the national legal systems must be reformed in order to achieve convergence with European standards.

The main points of convergence are the implementation and promotion of human rights, independent and effective judicial system, as well as legal support and strengthening of democratic institutions.

The expert meetings are attended by representatives of state authorities, profiled ministries, departments and institutions of the Eastern Partnership countries, as well as by experts from European countries. Following the proposal of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, the Council of Europe has also included for one representative of NGOs from every EaP country in a number of participants of the expert meetings. Such representative from Belarus was Elena Tonkacheva, the head of the Center for Legal Transformation, who took part in the expert meeting last week in Strasbourg. 

- Belarusian government has ignored the invitation of the Council of Europe to participate in expert meetings’ work, on a certain technical reason, says Elena Tonkacheva. The invitation had been sent to the Belarusian Ministry of foreign affairs. But to participate in the expert meetings, the Belarusian FM proposed only those officials who are currently included in the ban list of the EU. Thus, Belarus restricts the participation of professionals in the expert meetings, while justifying it by the presence of ban list. Neglecting participation in the program drifts Belarus apart from the early stages of convergence of our justice system with EU standards.

However, people included in the ban list wouldn’t bring anything significant to the work of expert groups. According to Elena Tonkacheva, the expert working groups’ staff should include not high-ranking politicians, but professionals: representatives of the Supreme Court and members of the Qualifications collegium of the Supreme Court, the Justice Ministry officials, representatives of academic institutions, for example, of the Institute for re-training and upgrading qualifications of judges, representatives of prosecutor's office, of courts and justice agencies of the Belarusian State University.

- Absence of the Belarusian governmental delegation at the expert meetings actually blocked the possibility of meaningful participation of Belarus in the program. So I had to make my speech in an uncharacteristic role for me, says Elena Tonkacheva. Our expert team has been working on the issues of re-training and upgrading qualifications of judges and prosecutors. Generally, a NGO representative’s task is to give constructive criticism and to bring additional viewpoint, other than that of government representatives. I had lately prepared a full expert report on Belarus and had previously talked on the prospects of convergence with European standards and on the obstacles that have arisen yet from the very beginning of discussion of this convergence.

Until the Belarusian Foreign ministry decides to take an active participation in the program, while blocking instead the Belarusian delegation activity, our country's participation in this process will be minimal and ineffective, is sure Elena Tonkacheva.

Yulia Inysheva, EUROBELARUS