Polish judges Maciej Ferek of the Regional Court in Kraków and Agnieszka Niklas-Bibik of the Regional Court in Słupsk were suspended, because they refused to recognise decisions made by judges appointed with involvement of the politicised National Council of the Judiciary.
The Good Lobby Profs have written letters of support to Judge Ferek and to Judge Niklas-Bibik, which Judges for Judges is proud to share and endorse.
Continue reading Letters of support for suspended Polish judges
The Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court of Poland is to be liquidated at the insistence of the European Union. Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has seized this opportunity to propose a revolutionary reform of the entire Supreme Court. In a quartet of articles, Rzeczpospolita explains and criticizes this plan – that in its wake may reshuffle the judiciary as a whole.
Continue reading Drastic overhaul of Polish Supreme Court proposed
The Constitutional Court of Poland denied the primacy of European law over national law in its ruling of 7 October 2021. The European Association of Judges takes note of this ‘devasting’ judgement with ‘great disappointment’ and finds it ‘totally clear’ to be ‘null and void’.
Its President Mr Duro Sessa therefore sent a letter of support to Iustitia, the Polish member association of the International Associations of Judges: ‘All principles we are fighting for are not for our sake but for the sake of the citizens. (…) The struggle of Iustitia is an inspiration for all judges in Europe.’
Eleven judges of the District Court in Kraków refused to adjudicate with judges nominated by the new National Council of the Judiciary. Three of them have since undergone forced transfers to other divisions. Their colleagues organized the first ever all-day rotational protest in response to this ‘expression of repression by the authorities’.
Continue reading Kraków judges protest after forced transfers
De International Commission of Jurists, de Amsterdamse Orde van Advocaten, Lawyers for Lawyers en Rechters voor Rechters organiseren op 5 oktober van 16.00 tot 17.30 uur een online evenement over de situatie van rechters en advocaten in Turkije.
Op 17 augustus 2021 hebben de Nederlandse Vereniging voor Rechtspraak (NVvR) en Rechters voor Rechters in een gezamenlijke brief [klik hier (pdf)] aan de vaste Kamercommissies voor Defensie en Buitenlandse zaken aandacht gevraagd voor de precaire situatie waarin met name Afghaanse vrouwelijke rechters zich bevinden.
In deze brief staat onder andere: Continue reading Brief van NVvR en RvR over situatie (vrouwelijke) Afghaanse rechters
Judges for Judges took notice with great concern of the recent developments in Afghanistan. Judges for Judges publicly supports the recent calls for international support by the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ), by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers and by the International Association of Judges (IAJ). Continue reading Judges for Judges on the recent developments in Afghanistan
A year has passed since August 9, 2020, when Belarus held a presidential election that officially gave Alexander Lukashenko, who had been in power since 1994, another term in office. Tens of thousands of Belarusians considered the election rigged and took to the streets in mass peaceful protests.
Over the last year, according to the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Viasna, a Belarusian organisation documenting torture, at least 35,000 peaceful protesters have been detained, there have been 4,691 documented criminal court cases, 608 political prisoners and about 1,800 reports of torture. Hundreds of human rights activists have been persecuted and thousands have had to flee the country.
What is it like to be a judge in Belarus? Judges for Judges had a chance to speak to one of the few judges that decided to leave their function. Mr. J* worked as judge in a regional court in Belarus until October 2020. In August 2020, judge J refused to hear cases against citizens who had been arrested on the streets during the protests against the outcome of the Belarus presidential election. He felt morally obliged to resign and was later forced to leave the country for fear of reprisals.
*J is for Judge: for security reasons his name is not mentioned here.
Continue reading Judge in exile: state of judiciary in Belarus is ‘deplorable’
Judges for Judges and Professor Laurent Pech have submitted joint third party interventions before the European Court of Human Rights in the cases of Polish judges Biliński and Juszczyszyn.
The case of Biliński v Poland primarily concerns the proceedings concerning the applicant’s forced transfer from the Criminal to the Family and Juvenile Division, which amounted to a disguised reprisal for his rulings and was unfair in many aspects.
The case of Juszczyszyn v Poland concerns the proceedings for and following the suspension of the applicant from his official duties by a body itself since suspended twice by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and whose lack of independence has also been definitively established by the ECJ as a matter of EU law.
Continue reading Third party interventions in Strasbourg cases of Polish judges
The Rule of Law has been suspended in Turkey for the last five years. In the tragic backsliding that followd the attempted Coup d’État of 15 July 2016, the Turkish judiciary has seen one of its darkest pages: the dismissal of thousands of judges and prosecutors, long imprisonments in life endangering detention conditions after unfair trials, and socially stigmatized and economically threatened families.
The Platform for an Independent Judiciary in Turkey, consisting of the four major judicial associations in Europe, in an official statement directed at the Council of Europe and the European Commission therefore:
