Description
The project is a response to the social needs and is primarly focused to increase the credibility and reliability of justice in Slovakia. In spite of the changes recently introduced in judiciary, the public credibility remains low, division of judges persists and many problems remain unsolved. Submitted project is a response to the marasmus in Slovak judiciary targeting to increase the openness of judges themselves towards the public. In the pre-election period the organization Judges "For open Judiciary" (FOJ) sees the importance to open the dialogue with relevant political parties. At the same time, FOJ will organize the open discussions with students, potential future colleagues, as the crucial part of its mission to fulfill the aim of increased judicial openness. Thus, submitted project reacts on described situation with two kinds of activities: communication with political parties to open the space for information flow and searching the acceptable solutions on actual and ongoing judicial problems; and open the tradition of discussions with law faculties’ students to give them the chance to discuss directly with judges and show them the importance of open communication, especially if one day they may serve as judges themselves. Thanks to the partner we are able to reach the objectives more effectively and precisely, FOJ can focus on what they do the best, open up the targeted discussion and try to ameliorate the situation in perceiving the situation in Slovak judiciary. The media coaching of FOJ partner in this project - Fair Play Alliance - will help to make situation smoother, thanks to their experiences FOJ can outreach specific groups (e.g. political parties). Also their mediation skills will easy out the dialogue so important to accomplish the project goals.
Summary of project results
Public trust in judiciary is extremely low in Slovakia. One of the reasons is that the judiciary is significantly closed, judges are reluctant to communicate with the public using the independence of judiciary as an argument. Project reflects the need to increase the communication potential of judges with public, experts and youth and also the need to actively participate on policy-making processes. Primary aim of the project as declared – strengthen advocacy and watchdog role of the judiciary – was achieved by a combination of several activities. The latter were aimed on three target groups: 1. Political parties: ZOJ conducted an intense discussion with political parties in pre-election time with the goal to offer the information and argumentation in the process of preparing the election programs; ZOJ offered also consultancy capacities for the parties in the process of drafting the programs; all relevant political analyses will serve as the baseline in later watchdog activities. 2. Students: Slovak students have no opportunity to approach professionals during their studies. Several project activities aimed to fulfill this gap and bring the students a realistic view on the profession of a judge, present “in-house” problems of the judiciary and motivate students. Thanks to the project, several partnerships with the universities were built. 3. Public: public discussions filled the need of public communication, provided the space for the interaction and offered first-hand information as well as an opportunity to listen to public opinions. Although project planned one public discussion, the interest among the audience led ZOJ to realize two public discussion: one outside of the capital and the other one in the capital.
Summary of bilateral results