Contract signed for continuation of support to Rule of Law project with HJPC BIH

The Signing Ceremony of the Agreements between Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kingdom of Norway and the Kingdom of the Netherlands marking the continuation of the support to BiH judiciary and cooperation between the HJPC BiH, the Norwegian Courts Administration and the Netherlands Council For The Judiciary and the beginning of the Improving Judicial Quality Project was held yesterday in Sarajevo.The total value value of the Project is 1.9 million euro.

The Agreements were signed by Mr. Milan Tegeltija, President of HJPC BiH and Mrs. Signe Engli, Deputy Head of Mission to the Norwegian Embassy to BiH, Mr. Sven Marius Urke, Director of the Norwegian Courts Administration and Mr. Kees Sterk, Vice-Chairman of the Netherlands Council for the Judiciary.

Vice-Chairman Sterk pointed out that the Netherlands judiciary has made the choice to work together with a limited number of judiciary. Even though culturally and historically the organization of judiciaries can be worlds apart, the daily work of independent judge is universal. Therefore the independence, impartiality, integrity and professionalism are the core values of the judiciary and are central to our trilateral cooperation with judiciaries.

This new three-year Project focuses on improving the quality and efficiency of the courts in BiH through targeted interventions such as: Court management and performance; Mentoring system for newly appointed judges; Efficiency and quality of court decisions; Further development of the automated case management system – SOKOP-Mal for the efficient processing of utility cases; Infrastructure of judicial buildings; Procedures for the appointment, appraisal and promotion of judges; Assessment of the independence, accountability and quality of the judiciary according to European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ) criteria.