From November 2 to November 16, the Project to Support the Independence and Impartiality of the Judiciary in the Southeast Adriatic Countries conducted a mission in Serbia and Croatia to focus and refine more precisely the activities for the next two years. The delegation was composed of:
- Judge Michèle Rivet, President of the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal, president of the International Projects Committee of ICJ Canada
- Justice Danielle Grenier, Quebec Appeal Court, Vice-President for Quebec, ICJ Canada (Serbia only)
- Justice Bill Kelly, Supreme Court of Nova Scotia (Serbia only)
- Justice Ted Scanlan, Supreme Court of Nova Scotia (Croatia only)
- Judge Bernard Grenier, Quebec Court (Croatia only)
- Me Caroline Meilleur, Project Director
- Me Nicolette Kost De Sèvres, ICJ Assistant
Both countries that we visited are in the process of establishing substantial legislative and structural reforms and are dealing with a number of international organizations and donors. ICJ Canada had the opportunity to discuss at length the actual situation of the judiciary in both countries and to exchange views with stakeholders in the legal community, as with as with other intnational donors present in the region and involved with the judicial sector.
We devoted time to strengthening our relationship with the Presidents of the Supreme Court of Serbia, the County Court of Zagreb, the Municipal Court of Zagreb, and the Association of Judges of Serbia. All of our meetings were extremely important to deepening our knowledge of the situation, broadening our understanding of the judiciary, and defining ICJ Canada’s role more precisely.
I also had the opportunity to address judges of Serbia at the largest Judges Conference organized in recent years, which was held in Vrnjacka Banja from November 4th to the 7th. More than 500 judges from Serbia attended this conference, which was organized by the Supreme Court of Serbia and partially funded by the Canadian Embassy in Belgrade. This meeting gathered together the Presidents of 167 Courts and provided a unique forum for Serbian judges to come together and discuss matters related to their functions. The conference will become an annual event.
As ICJ Canada’s representative, I was among a few international
experts selected to address issues related to the reform of the
judiciary. Other participants included:
- Leposava Karamarkovic, President of the Supreme Court of Serbia
- Zoran Ivosevic, Deputy President of the Supreme Court of Serbia
- Pierre Truche, Honorary President of the Court of Cassation, Director of the National Commission for Deontology
- John Philips, Rule of Law Liaison, American Bar Association, CEELI
- Paule Tiedemann, Judge of the Supreme Court of Serbia
- Gordana Mihajlovic, President of the Second Municipal Court in Belgrade
- Vida Petrovic-Skero, Judge of the Supreme Court of Serbia
- Omer Hadziomerovic, Judge of the District Court in Belgrade, Presient of the Association of Judges
My own presentation will be translated into Serbian and distributed among the judiciary in Serbia and Montenegro. It can be read in English only on the Documents page of the ICJ Canada web site.
The Canadian delegation was able to define a set of activities in each country, dealing with Court Efficiency, Human Rights, and Judicial Conduct. I should point out that the “judges-to-judges” approach developed by ICJ Canada is viewed as unique and particularly effective.
We are currently finalizing all details regarding the future
of the project. We expect that our next activities abroad will
take place in February or March 2003.