The 39th plenary meeting of 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. Frédéric Dolt, Head of Department for the Implementation of Human Rights, Justice and Legal Cooperation 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, Evaluation report on “European judicial systems”, 2022 Evaluation cycle (2020 data) which was published on 5 October 2022 was presented to the members of CEPEJ. The participants were informed about the progress made and the points planned about the programmes carried out with beneficiary countries within the framework of the CEPEJ Cooperation Programme. The CEPEJ also adopted “the Guidelines on Gender Diversity in the Recruitment and Promotion of Judges” and “Promoting mediation to resolve administrative disputes in Council of Europe member states”.
On the other hand, as the term of office of Mr. Ramin Garagurbanlı (Azerbaijan) who has been the president of CEPEJ for the past four years came to an end, Mr. Francesco Depasquale (Malta) was elected as the President of CEPEJ for the period of next two years. In addition, new deputy president and two bureau members were elected in place of those whose term of office ended.
After the complete list of agenda was discussed, the meeting was finalised with closing speeches.