International meeting of judges - we talk about the situation in Poland
23 March 2018. In Prague, at the headquarters of the CEELI Institute (beautiful villa Grebovka), a three-day meeting of judges from many countries takes place. We talk about what is happening in Poland.
As part of the project "Central & East European Judicial Exchange Network Roundtable: Preventing Corruption in the Judiciary", judges from many countries met in Prague (there are also a few people from civic organizations), such as Bulgaria, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Macedonia, Moldova, Georgia, Albania, Hungary, Slovenia, Poland, Serbia, USA, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Romania.
The meeting focuses on sharing experience and discussing controversial issues, after initial presentations by panelists all participants take part in a discussion on a number of interesting topics.
Judge Sławomir Pałka, until recently a member of the National Council of the Judiciary in Poland, presented information about the situation of the Polish judiciary during the session Facing external pressures, he spoke extensively about the attack on the independence of courts and institutions in Poland.
Łukasz Bojarski, President of INPRIS, appeared during a session devoted to the Principles of Open Judiciary - interaction with different stakeholders. He addressed two main topics. He spoke about the importance of transparency and openness in all court actions - access to the court building and the courtroom, transparency and accessibility of court decisions, openness and availability of information on administration, finances, and judicial governance, including appointment of judges etc.
Łukasz Bojarski also presented his opinion on the actions of the Polish government and the situation in the justice system as well as the activities undertaken by Polish civic organizations (including INPRIS) in the defense of the judiciary. Participants were surprised by the development of the situation in Poland, generally aware they did not know the details. Parcipants were impressed with a photo of the Supreme Court in July 2017 surrounded by thousands of people with candles, with the phrace projected on the court wall "This is our court".
The conference is interesting and multithreaded. Sessions that have aroused the most heated discussions so far are a session devoted to the submission of asset declarations by the judges and a session devoted to the use of social media by courts and individual judges.
Here you can see the Grebovka villa and learn about the CEELI Institute.