3 hours ago“The Country Commission secretly selects for appointment judges of the Constitutional Court”
Periskopi(5 years ago)
(5 years ago)Civil Society Organisations in Kosovo: Kosovo's Institute for Justice (IKD), Movement FOL, Group for Political Studies and Juridical Studies(GLPS), the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI), the Kosovar Foundation for Civil Society(KCSF) have accused the Assembly Special Commission of secretly selecting candidates for the Constitutional Court's judges for appointment. In a media report they said [...]
In a news release, the media have said there has been a lack of transparency in the case of a proposal by Constitutional Court judges from the Special Commission of the Parliament.
Notification:
Pristina, August 24th 2021 We, the undersigned organisations react to the lack of transparency in the case of the Constitutional Court's Proposal of Judges from the Special Commission of the Parliament.
The Special Parliament Commission for the Review of Candidates for appointment at the Constitutional Court, headed by MP Adnan Rrustemi, has secretly developed the process of selecting judges candidates to the Constitutional Court.
Although in the initial steps of this process on July 22, 2021 (in the phase of preparing testing questions) members of civil society had participated in monitoring the process, in later stages (testing and selection) civil society has not been announced at all for the Commission's meetings, although several civil society organisations had submitted requests and expressions of interest to the Parliament officials and the chairman of the Commission. At once, Mr. Chairman himself. Rrustem had announced to those present at the initial meeting that they will be informed about their next meetings in time.
Such information never occurred (with all the requests made), meanwhile, this Commission, eight days later, published on the Web site the news that it proceeded further to the Assembly for appointment of six candidates, where only two will eventually be named by the Parliament in the next sessions. This process took place without the participation of civil society although the Commission's meetings should be open and transparent to the Parliament's Labour Adjust.
We as the Civil Society Organisation in Kosovo see with concern the fact that this Commission ignores the involvement of civil society in such an important process as the selection of Constitutional Court judges. The commission has neither sent invitations for participation at the Commission's meetings nor responded to expressions of interest in participation sent to his address. This had not happened in the preliminary process for examining candidates for Constitutional Court judges, where civil society had actively participated. The change in this practice is unintelligible and without legal grounds. Moreover, this action of the Commission essentially affects the very integrity of the process of selecting the judges of the Constitutional Court, whose eventual election would be deemed untransparent.
This is not the first time that the current legislature commissions ignore significant participation in civil society in monitoring public-interest processes. We underestimated organisations, such trends are viewed as very disturbing and call for such to be considered by the entire political and social spectrum in Kosovo. Above all, the current legislature must be clear about the role and importance of civil society, creating the necessary conditions for the exercise of its mission.
Signatories:
Kosovo Institute for Justice (IKD)
FOL Movement
Group for Political and Juridical Studies(GLPS)
Kosovo Democratic Institute(KDI)
Kosovar Civil Society Foundation(KCSF)
