Between February 2010 and June 2011 the National NGO Network for Civil Society Monitoring over Judiciary conducted a monitoring research of the citizens’ access to justice. It affected 20 courts in 16 court regions in Northern Bulgaria within the framework of the Project ‘Justice Close to People’, funded by ‘America for Bulgaria’ Foundation.
The monitoring team concludes there has been a visible progress in the functioning of the courts related to the subject of the monitoring for the past seven years. There are spheres of functioning of the judicial institutions where crucial for the judiciary reforms laws are being implemented rather formally than substantially. Some practices hide some reluctance for real change which still dominates most magistrates’ attitudes. The attempts to circumvent legal rules by following socially rejected stereotypes reveal that changes in morality and implementation of high standards of professional ethics within the wide community of the magistrates is still about to happen.
Special attention has been paid to issues related to the public conduct of the magistrates in the context of their Ethical Code. The monitoring also focuses on practices of implementation of the law preventing conflicts of interests and the respect for principles of transparency and openness which govern courts’ public information policies.
The research also outlines the role of the jurors. The formal approach of the system related to their involvement in the administration of justice has been criticized.
The monitoring reports on different issues describe the system via the lens of the citizens and constitute a delicate civil society pressure for positive changes in jurisprudence.
With the kind approval of the National NGO Network for Civil Society Monitoring of Judiciary the team of the Justice Development Foundation publishes the package of monitoring reports (all available only in Bulgarian):
Обобщаващ Доклад за напредъка на съда в Северна България, 2010-2011 г.
Граждански наблюдател, септември 2010 г.
Граждански наблюдател, октомври 2010 г.
Граждански наблюдател, януари 2011 г.
Граждански наблюдател, март 2011 г.
Граждански наблюдател, май 2011 г.
