Increased efficiency, accountability and transparency of courts in Moldova

Project description

The overall objective of this project was to support the implementation of the sustainable reform of the justice sector in Moldova and to increase the efficiency of the judiciary and other agencies in the justice sector

This particular project aimed to improve the court system and had the following focus areas:

• to increase the efficiency, impartiality, accountability and transparency of the courts in Moldova, particularly in the context of the reforms proposed in the Justice Sector Reform Strategy and Action Plan;
• to help ensure that the judiciary is a real guarantor of the observance of human rights and security for every person in the course of litigation procedure;
• to help in application of best practices to reduce the level of judicial corruption and increase public trust in the judiciary;
• to improve efficiency in courts’ budget, including by supporting the implementation of optimization of courts’ displacement map and allocation of judges and court staff per courts;
• to develop the capacity of the judicial institutions to take ownership of the information, IT, video and audio-recording systems, to further improve data management generated by the courts.

The direct beneficiaries of the project were various institutions and professions involved in judicial tasks and administration of justice: court administrators, senior officials and staff of the courts, the Superior Council of Magistracy, the Supreme Court of Justice and the Department of Judicial Administration of the Ministry of Justice, as well as judges. Other indirect beneficiaries, however, included any person or entity who becomes involved with the justice system, as lawyers, offenders or victims, plaintiffs or defendants, as well as the general public at large and all citizens and non-citizens who depend on the rule of law to protect their own and their family’s person and property, human and civil rights.

This project aimed to help implement certain parts of the Justice Sector Reform Strategy (SJSR) and Action Plan 2011-2016 of the Republic of Moldova, with the overall underlying objective of building an accessible, efficient, independent, transparent, and professional justice sector, and the particular aim to increase the efficiency, impartiality, accountability and transparency of the courts in Moldova. This project intervention fully acknowledged the commitment and also the already achieved progress of the Moldovan authorities in implementing the JSRS and understood the project as a tailored contribution to the fulfilment of this strategy.