NGOs and the Judiciary – watch dog activities, interactions, collaboration, communication – INPRIS new international project
15 January 2015. INPRIS is starting in January 2015 a new project funded by the International Visegrad Fund. It is partially based on our experience in Poland – see for instance information on the recently accomplished project Together or apart? Collaboration, interactions, communication of the Judiciary and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that consisted of two days conference for about 90 judges and 30 representatives of NGOs as well as preparation of conference materials and post conference publication.
The general topic addressed by the project NGOs and the Judiciary is watch dog activities, cooperation, interaction, communication and relations between NGOs and judiciary with special focus on civic monitoring of the judiciary.
The aim of the project is to gather and share good practices in area of cooperation between NGOs and judiciary, especially civic monitoring of judiciary, with focus on Western Balkans countries. We observe that NGOs are getting more and more involved in various activities related to judiciary (also cooperation projects) and many of these activities are various forms of monitoring. We find it extremely inspiring and useful to discover how this issue is addressed in other countries. The project can be divided into three phases – research, study visit in Poland combined with a meeting of all partners and workshops in Western Balkans.
Possible civic activities include: monitoring of the judiciary by NGOs (of courts’ activities, communication with citizens, judges appointments), trial observations (court watch), strategic litigation, involvement of NGOs in court trials, amicus curiae, trainings and workshops for judges organized by expert NGOs, collaboration of NGOs with judges associations, NGOs as organizations educating citizens in about the judiciary.
All these activities play vital role in shaping civil society, strengthening rule of law and democracy. Firstly, citizens via NGO control the judiciary via various forms of monitoring. Secondly, by getting involved in trials and educational projects, NGOs empower the Judiciary, help with building professional capacity of judges and support activity of courts.
We are glad to cooperate on the project with following partners from Visegrad countries: CEELI Institute (Chech Republic), VIS IURIS (Slovakia), and following partners from Western Balkan countries: Albanian Helsinki Committee (Albania), Coalition of Civil Associations “All for fair trials” (Macedonia), Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM (Serbia).
The project is funded by International Visegrad Fund and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea.
