14 Nov Reaction pursuant to the discussion at the session of the Council of Public Prosecutors regarding the publicly expressed position of the Blueprint Group on the election of the Basic Public Prosecutor of the OJO-GOKK
The Blueprint Group for Judicial Reforms addresses the President of the Council of Public Prosecutors, Mr. Jolevski through the media and calls on him to express the position of the Council regarding the discussion led by members of the Council of Public Prosecutors at the session held on November 11, 2022, at which insults were directed at civil society representatives, professionals in the legal profession and public officials. Thus, the context of the discussion was extremely unprofessional, completely contrary to ethical behavior standards for public prosecutors and poses a risk of creating mistrust that may lead to non-cooperation with interested parties in the justice reform.
Namely, at the 69th public session of the Council of Public Prosecutors, held on November 11, 2022, which was attended by representatives from organizations that are members of the Blueprint Group for Judicial Reforms, and who regularly monitor the work of the Council of Public Prosecutors (under miscellaneous item from the Agenda), the members of the Council opened a discussion on the public reactions of the expert public, legal experts and civil society organizations regarding the implementation of the election of the Basic Public Prosecutor of the OJO-GOKK.
Within the discussion, one of the members of the Council on several occasions directed insults at the Blueprint Group and the civil society as a whole, during which he tried to offensively discredit the work of the organizations from the Blueprint Group. From the opinion of this Council member, which contained unsubstantiated disagreements with the publicly expressed opinion of the Blueprint Group on the lack of transparency in the selection process of the Basic Public Prosecutor of OJO-GOKK, his attitude and intention to indicate that civil society organizations should not give an opinion about the work of the Council at all are of the greatest concern and that they are under political influence and the criticism directed at the Council is intended to destroy its credibility. This discussion was not prevented by the President of the Council of Public Prosecutors or by any other member, and even more worryingly, it was not isolated either. Namely, in the continuation of the discussion by another member of the Council, it was emphasized that the views expressed by their colleague about the Blueprint Group are the views of the Council as a whole.
Immediately after the end of the session, the Blueprint Group sent a letter to Mr. Jolevski as the President of the Council of Public Prosecutors with a request to decide as soon as possible whether the expressed views of the two members are the views of the Council as a whole or the personal views of those particular Council members.
Coming from previous cooperation between the Blueprint Group for Judicial Reform and the Council of Public Prosecutors, we believe that with the discussion expressed with insults and an unprofessional tone, an environment of mistrust and non-cooperation is created between the Council and civil society at a key moment for the justice reform processes and European integrations. We are concerned by the underestimating and insulting attitude of the Council member, who is a prominent jurist, and we believe that it also imposes pressure on civil society, in order to limit constructive criticism directed at the work of public institutions, and thus to reduce the degree of openness, inclusiveness, transparency and accountability of institutions which are key elements of the rule of law principle, as the foundation of democratic societies.
We expect Mr. Jolevski, as the President of the Council of Public Prosecutors, who has so far shown high professional integrity, was open to communication and cooperation with civil society organizations, in the name of the Council of Public Prosecutors, to express his opinion on the request of the Blueprint Group, and at the same time, to publicly distance himself from the views expressed by the two members of the Council against the civil society and to ask them to apologize for the insults directed at the representatives of the civil organizations and everyone else to whom the insults and discredits were directed.
Respectably,
Skopje, 14.11.2022
- • Macedonian Young Lawyers Association
- • European Policy Institute
- • Institute for Human Rights
- • Coalition All For Fair Trials
- • Helsinki Committee for Human Rights
- • Center for Legal Research and Analysis
- • Open Society Foundation – Macedonia