The Minister also informed about reforms implemented at the Ministry of Justice, which should catch interest of young lawyers who wish to continue their professional career in the judiciary. Particularly, Pavlo Petrenko described Ministry’s new personnel policy.
“We are making changes in personnel of head justice departments at local levels, as well as at the central office. We have removed any restrictions regarding the need to have public service experience for those individuals, who wish to join our team”, - he emphasized.
In addition Pavlo Petrenko informed about the conclusion of the first stage of personnel renewal, within the course of which more than half the heads of the judiciary at local level failed public tests and had to leave their posts. Open competitions have been opened to fill in vacant positions.
According to the Minister the majority of those, who had successfully passed competitive selection are people have never worked in the state service sector and they don’t have any bad bureaucratic experience from the old justice system.
“We currently continue to renew or personnel in district and city departments of justice. About 2 thousand positions become vacant. It is a great opportunity for young specialists to join the Ministry of Justice team in order to fulfill themselves and to gain experience. Any person, who wishes to work, to change the country, to change the judiciary is our ally and a member of our team. It is in this collaboration we will be able to update the judiciary in Ukraine”, - emphasized Pavlo Petrenko.
He also mentioned that starting from July 1, there will be 100 free legal aid provision centers all over Ukraine. Due to the implementation of this program free secondary legal aid will be available for 8 million Ukrainian citizens, who have low income and can’t afford an attorney.
“About 5 thousand lawyers have joined this process. Together with the advocacy community we will launch a full-scale free legal aid, and the Ministry of Justice will become an attorney for citizens in judicial disputes, including disputes against the state”, - summarized Pavlo Petrenko and invited young lawyers to join this noble case.
Forum participants have been also welcomed by Members of the advocacy and judicial communities, public activists, as well as Council of Europe and OSCE representatives.
Participants during their work in sections will consider current problems in labor legislation, corporate law, judicial reform and mediation.