The international round table on the topic: “Prospects for personnel policy in the judicial system”

On October 18th, 2019, High Judicial Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan held the international round table on the topic: “Prospects for personnel policy in the judicial system”.

The event was also co-organized by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the offices of the World Bank and UNDP in Kazakhstan.

The round table was attended by representatives of the General Council of the Judiciary of Spain (GCJ), the High Judicial Council of Uzbekistan, the Council for the Selection of judges of Kyrgyzstan, the French National School for the Judiciary (ENM), Judicial Training Centre of Tajikistan`s Supreme Court, as well as international experts from Canada, Spain, Georgia, representatives of international organizations and the diplomatic corps. From the Kazakhstan side, round table was attended by the representatives of the Executive Office of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Office of the First President, the Constitutional Council, deputies of the Parliament, representatives of other state bodies, representatives of the judiciary and the legal community.

The participants discussed issues related to the main problems of formation and development prospects of judicial personnel in Kazakhstan. Representatives of the Kingdom of Spain and the French Republic presented their experience of the selection and training of judges. The participants also exchanged views on the application of the international standards in the work of judicial councils, the disciplinary responsibility of judges, the impact of professional judges on the guarantees of their independence, the interaction of the legal community and the judiciary in the selection and evaluation of judges, the use of modern HR methods as tools to improve the quality of judicial selection.

In general, Kazakhstan’s experience in transforming the judicial selection system aroused keen interest among experts from OECD countries and representatives of Central Asian republics.

Guests of the event praised the changes that are taking place in the Kazakhstan judicial system and expressed interest in cooperation and exchange of experience.

Following the results of the round table, a number of joint recommendations on the need were adopted:

- expanding the conditions for the use of HR tools in judicial selection;

- improving the mechanisms of disciplinary responsibility of judges in compliance with guarantees of their independence;

- close interaction of the legal community, civil society and the judiciary in the selection and evaluation of judges;

- development of measures for the participation of the High Judicial Council in the professional assessment of judges;

- adaptation, taking into account national characteristics, positive foreign experience in matters of personnel policy in the judicial system of the Republic of Kazakhstan;

- initiating a proposal on the establishment of a professional holiday for the judiciary.