On May 14, 2014, Promo-LEX and the Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance (AGER) held a press conference to launch Quarterly Monitoring Report no. 5 on the Implementation of Justice Sector Reform Strategy (monitoring period: 1 January to 31 March 2014).

The general conclusions of the report shows that the pace of implementation of the Justice Sector Reform Strategy remains quite slow. Thus, of 264 of actions due for completion by 31 March 2014, including those overdue, 157 were implemented, and 107 remain not implemented, which represents a percentage ratio of 59% to 41%. Experts ared particularly concerned with the fact that the few activities provided for the monitoring period were not implemented. Statistics on the mplementationof actions due in the reporting period show a completion rate of only 14%.

“We emphasize that, during the reporting period, two studies were presented that are fundamental to the reform of the judicial system, and namely the Study on the optimization of the map of courts location, and the Study on the need for specialization of judges. We hope that this will encourage relevant actors to move quicker on follow up actions,” said Olesea Stamate from AGER Association.

With regard to trial monitoring, 300 hearings were monitored in courts across the country. In this regard, 480 court user satisfaction questionnaires were completed. A positive indicator of growth is the number of audio-recorded hearings, which increased by 12% compared to the fourth quarter of 2013, and the increase by approximately 10% of the number of hearings held in courtrooms. “Among the deficiencies we note court facilities that were rated negatively by 20% of lawyers and court users,” said Alexandru Postica from Promo-LEX.

Recall that monitoring focuses on the observation of two main components: assessment of actions included in the Action Plan for implementation of the Justice Sector Reform Strategy, and trial monitoring. The report analyzed two categories of actions: actions due for completion in the first quarter of 2014, and overdue actions, which were to be completed by 31 December 2013.

The electronic version of the Report is available on www.promolex.md and www.monitor.md.

The report was prepared within the project “Monitoring Justice Sector Reform to Increase Government Accountability”, implemented by Promo-LEX and the Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance, with the financial support of the European Union. The project is co-financed by the East European Foundation, with funds provided by the Government of Sweden through the Swedish Agency for International Development and Cooperation (Sida) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark/DANIDA.

For more details, please contact Carolina Bondarciuc, Press Officer: GSM – 069637849,
Tel/Fax – (+373 22) 450024, email [email protected].