The 37th plenary meeting of the CEPEJ, which is one of the advisory bodies of the Council of Europe, took place on 8 and 9 December in Strasbourg/France and online. On behalf of CJP, Rapporteur Judge of the Bureau of Foreign Relations and Project Mr. Zeki UYSAL, PhD attended the meeting.
Mr. Christophe POIREL, Council of Europe Human Rights Director and Mr. Mikhail LOBOV, Head of the Department for the Implementation of Human Rights, Justice and Legal Co-operation Standards made the opening speeches.
In the meeting, in accordance with the agenda announced beforehand, the participants were informed about the ongoing and completed works of CEPEJ working groups of the Evaluation of Judicial Systems (GT-EVAL), Quality of Justice (GT-QUAL), Judicial Time Management (SATURN) and Cyberjustice (CYBERJUST).
Within this framework, “The Action Plan for Digitalisation for a Better Justice”, aiming at reconciling the efficiency of new technologies and the respect of fundamental rights which will also guide decisions on the practical follow-up to the European Ethical Charter on the use of artificial intelligence in judicial systems and their environment has been adopted for the next four years. The CEPEJ has also adopted a “Revised Roadmap” for ensuring an appropriate follow-up to the abovementioned Ethical Charter. Moreover, “The Guidelines on Electronic Court Filing and Digitalisation of Courts” and “The Revised SATURN Guidelines for Judicial Time Management” that envisage the means at the disposal of judges to reduce the length of proceedings were adopted. Besides that, the mandate of the CEPEJ working groups was renewed with the adoption of “CEPEJ Activity Programme 2022-2023”. Lastly, the presentation session of “Crystal Scales of Justice Prize 2021” was held.
After the complete list of agenda was discussed, the meeting was finalised with closing speeches.