This report is also available here
Rome, 22nd August, 2022
ORDINARY ACTIVITIES CARRIED ON
AFTER THE IAJ MEETING OF THE CENTRAL COUNCIL HELD BY VIDEO-LINK IN SEPTEMBER 2021
The IAJ Secretariat-General has been constantly active in dealing with the ordinary exchange of mails, letters and WhatsApp messages with the Presidency Committee, the four Regional Groups, the four Study Commissions and Member Associations. Some meetings were held among the members of the Secretariat-General, in order to organize the work and plan IAJ future activities and initiatives.
On June 10-11 the PC met in the city of Verona. The Committee heard and discussed the reports of the President, Secretary-General and the 4 Vice Presidents chairing the Regional Groups. The Presidency Committee also discussed the item of regular monitoring and of the IAJ working groups, the organisation of the next IAJ annual meeting in Israel and of the 2023 meeting in Taiwan, the priorities for the work of the Presidency Committee and IAJ for the triennium 2019- 2022, and the requests of assistance from Afghanistan and the situation of Ukraine. The PC meeting preceding the meeting of the Central Council will be held via video-link on September 10th, 2022.
The General Secretariat completed in July the setting-up of the websites for the four Regional Group, that now have their own URL and their own documents, news, pictures sections. The URL of the websites are the following:
the Asian, North American and Oceanian Group: https://anao.iaj-uim.org/
the African Group: https://ag.iaj-uim.org/
the European Association of Judges: https://eaj.iaj-uim.org/
the Iberoamerican Group: https://iba.iaj-uim.org/
The General Secretariat relies on the cooperation from IAJ Members to receive information, news, statements related to IAJ activities to be uploaded in the websites.
The General Secretariat hired in November 2021 a second assistant. The permanent staff of the Secretariat is therefore composed of Ms. Daniela de Vincentiis and the new entry Ms. Alessandra Decina, plus the occasional collaboration pro bono of the former assistant, Ms. Barbara Scolart. The reason for hiring a second element for the permanent staff was the abrupt increase in the workload due to new emergencies, like the situation of judges in Poland, Turkey, Afghanistan and Ukraine, the necessity to ameliorate the website, increasing its contents and enhancing Regional Groups' pages, the need to launch a series of initiatives following the publication of the guidelines on the creation of new associations.
IAJ 2022 MEETING OF THE CENTRAL COUNCIL
On March 19 the invitation letter and the programme were spread to all the IAJ members, a news published. In May the usual invitation was addressed also to some NGOs, to the UN Special Rapporteur and to the Associations of Rwanda and Honduras, due to their interest in joining the IAJ. An amended programme was spread on May 11th, 2022.
The General Secretariat kept regular contacts with the organising team of the Israeli Association, dealing with important aspects, such as the accommodation, the simultaneous translations, the possibility of attending by video link (limited to those countries where there should be in September severe restrictions to travel or a lock down), the number of delegates per each IAJ member.
On June 17 the IAJ Secretariat-General received by President José Igreja Matos a proposal, in the 5 official languages, for amendment of the IAJ Constitution, which is endorsed also by the entire Presidency Committee, and disseminated it to all IAJ members together with an explanatory note, in English, French and Spanish. The amendments refer to the provisions dealing with membership and voting and are the result of the work of the working group established by the Central Council at the meeting in Nur Sultan in 2019.
On July 28th, 2022, the General Secretariat disseminated the agenda of the CC to all IAJ members together with a link to a dedicated page collecting all the documents related to the meeting.
Invitations:
Following observers were invited to the meeting and accepted the invitation: • UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers;
NGOs: International Association of Prosecutors, World Jurist Association (video message), Federación Latino Americana de Magistrados, International Union of Portuguese Speaking Judges, the Judges’ forum of IBA;
OSCE.
Study Commissions
Since springtime, the questionnaires for the Study Commissions and the national reports submitted by the Member Associations have been distributed to all associations and published in the website.
The deadline was fixed for all the 4 questionnaires on July 29, 2022.
At the date of this report, the Secretariat-General received 36 replies for the 1st Study Commission’s questionnaire, 39 for the 2nd, 33 for the 3rd and 33 for the 4th (out of 94 member associations).
APPLICATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP
In February 2022 the Judges Associations of Rwanda and Honduras expressed their interest for the membership in the IAJ. Information was provided accordingly
IAJ MEETINGS
IAJ 2023 Meeting (Taiwan)
The association of Taiwan applied officially for the organisation of the meeting in 2023. The Presidency Committee decided to approve the proposed dates (16-21 September) and to submit the decision to the Central Council for its ratification.
WORKING GROUPS
Commission on IAJ Regular Monitoring (Chairperson: Mr. Sjoberg)
Up to the date of this report, the following national associations belonging to the first group of 31 members did not answer the survey: Benin, East Timor and Egypt. According to art. 13, § 6, of the IAJ Regulations, “failure to submit the report without justification allows the Presidency Committee to proceed in the manner prescribed by article 12 of the Regulations”. Article 12, § 2, of the Regulations state that “as soon as it has knowledge of the fact that a member does not fulfil the criteria [for membership], the Presidency Committee, after consultation with the respective Regional Group, may appoint two rapporteurs to inquire into the situation”. Since the deadline for the presentation of the report expired one month before the start of the Central Council in September 2021, and after the holding of the Regional Groups meetings, the Presidency Committee is now called to decide whether to exercise its power or not.
In January 2022 the second group of 31 IAJ associations were requested to fill in the questionnaire within August 24. At the date of this report only 12 Associations out of 31 sent their reports. Georgia, Germany, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Hungary, Iceland, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Mauritania, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro and Mozambique have not sent their reports yet.
WG to explore the possibility of providing assistance to judges facing challenges in the performing of their functions (Chairperson: Mr. Blake)
Mr Blake reported on the activities of the WG on the occasion of the EAJ meeting in Porto. On May 2nd a letter of Mr Blake was sent to the Presidents of the 4 Regional Groups inviting them to establish, within their Regional Groups, a working party to cover the range of issues that may arise in the respective regional area and to appoint 2-3 members from the Regional Group working party to serve on the international working group chaired by him. The composition was finally settled.
WG to review the Constitution, in particular, but not only, with regard to the voting rights (Chairperson: Mr. Pagone)
The Group drafted a proposal of amendment of the IAJ Constitution that was approved by the IAJ Presidency Committee, officially presented by the IAJ President and spread to all the IAJ members for the vote in Tel Aviv.
WG on the creation of Judges Associations (Chairperson: Mr. Sjoberg) The General Secretariat edited the publication, on line and in print, of the guidelines on the creation of new associations, outcome of the works of the ad hoc Working Group, chaired by Vice-President Mikael Sjoberg.
At the date of this report, the General Secretariat contacted personalities of the judiciary in 48 countries, presenting the initiative and offering the support of the IAJ should there be in the country the willingness of local judges to establish an association.
CONFERENCES
38th Plenary Meeting of the CEPEJ in Malta
On June 27th and 28th, 2022, the 38th Plenary Meeting of the CEPEJ took place in La Valletta (Malta). IAJ and EAJ (which enjoy the status of observer at the CEPEJ) were represented by Mr. Duro Sessa, IAJ First Vice-President and President of the EAJ, as well as by Secretary-General Mr. Giacomo Oberto, who submitted a presentation in his quality as President of the CEPEJ
SATURN Working Group for Judicial Time Management on the following subject: “Judicial Time Management: Information on the On-Going Work of the SATURN Centre.” The Plenary Meeting was preceded by a ceremony for the 20th anniversary of CEPEJ, during which President Sessa gave a presentation.
Co-operation with UIN (International Union of Notaries)
On 21st and 22nd October, 2022, a conference will be held in Barcelona, resulting from the co operation of IAJ and the International Union of Notaries. Subject of the seminar will be the role of judges and notaries in the process of “Dejurisditionalisation” of part of the Courts’ activities. IAJ will be represented (beside myself) by two eminent members of the Board of the Second Study Commission: President Mr. John Edwards (Ireland) and Vice President Mrs. Mette Soegaard Vammen (Denmark).
UN SEATS
As every year, the General Secretariat made the annual accreditation of the IAJ representatives at the 3 seats of the UN (New York, Vienna and Geneva).
IAJ NEWSLETTER
The General Secretariat prepared and disseminated among the IAJ members the 2 issues of the newsletter of 2022. They are also available in the IAJ website: https://www.iaj-uim.org/iaj-uim newsletter/. I am looking forward to seeing you all in presence very soon in September.
Yours sincerely,
(Giacomo Oberto)
Secretary-General of the IAJ