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Delegation of the Romanian Public Prosecutor’s Office on talks on the issue of victim’s protection at the Weißer Ring e.V. in Mainz
EU Action Grant
Responsible at the IRZ: Katharina Tegeder, Frank Hupfeld, Franziska Simon, Veronika Bode
Project Partners: The Prosecutor´s Office of Republic of Bulgaria, The Prosecutor´s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice Romania, The Weisser Ring e.V
The project, which commenced in February 2016 and will end in January 2018, comprises three components: In the first component, the intention is to improve the efficiency of the public prosecutor’s offices in Bulgaria and Romania in their treatment of victims of crime. Additionally, their awareness is to be increased and they are to be trained in the respectful treatment of victims of crime. The second component is concerned with strengthening the cooperation between victim protection associations and the public prosecutor’s offices. The third component will deal with the development of an information brochure for crime victims by Romanian and Bulgarian victim protection associations in collaboration with the Weißer Ring.
Following the successful further training seminars for public prosecutors, police officers and staff of victim protection associations in Bulgaria and Romania, in which some 175 people in total were able to receive further training, expert talks were held in Germany and Brussels. Two delegations of Romanian and Bulgarian public prosecutors conducted expert talks at the Ministry of Justice, the State Office of Criminal Investigations, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Weißer Ring in Mainz. The participants thus had the opportunity to gain practical insights into the field of victim protection in Germany and the collaboration between authorities and victim protection organisations. Another study trip included meetings at the European Commission and Victim Support Europe and took place in mid-November.
In cooperation with the project partner Weißer Ring, another seminar was held in Sofia to develop a handbook for dealing with victims and a brochure with information on victim protection organisations in Bulgaria. Equivalent seminars were also held in Romania. All project results will be presented at the final conference in Sofia in early 2018.
Responsible at the IRZ: Katharina Tegeder, Frank Hupfeld Project Partners: Ministry of Justice of Romania, Judicial Academy of Croatia, Ministry of Justice Lof atvia, Federal Office of Justice
This project aims to improve cooperation between the relevant authorities in the EU Member States in regard to the implementation of the Directive 2201/2003 concerning jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and the matters of parental responsibility.
A seminar is planned for March 2018 that will rather take on the magnitude of a conference as regards the number of 150 participants. Representatives of the judiciary and other professional groups dealing with the implementation of The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction are invited from all EU Member States. Partners in this project are the Croatian Judicial Academy, the Latvian Ministry of Justice, the German Federal Office of Justice and the IRZ, with the Romanian Ministry of Justice taking the lead.
Within this two-day conference, it is above all the following topics that shall be addressed in individual contributions: “Child abduction”, “Exercising parental custody” and “Enforcing a judgment on the return of a child by a court of another EU Member State”. Based on current scheduling, the project will terminate in spring 2018.
5 th Steering Committee Meeting in Pristina: Edita Kusari, EUSR; Laura Liguori, Kosovo Prosecutorial Council; Julia Jacoby, EU Office Kosovo; Katharina Tegeder, IRZ; Eric Vincken, Junior Project Leader; Christine Jacobi, Project Leader; Klaus Erdmann, Resident Twinning Advisor; Besim Morina, Kosovan Project Leader; Afërdita Smajli, JSSP; Melihate Rama; Ruzhdi Osmani, Ministry of Justice Kosovo; Valmira Pefqeli, Resident Twinning Advisor counterpart (from left to right)
EU Twinning
Project leader: Christine Jacobi Junior project leader: Eric Vincken (CILC) RTA: Klaus Erdmann Responsible at the IRZ: Rita Tenhaft, Katharina Tegeder
The objectives and priorities of this Twinning project are closely linked to the development of the judicial sector in Kosovo. The demands to be made on the improvement of basic and further training and the specific content to be prepared for them depend largely on the progress of the negotiations between Kosovo and the EU (Stability and Association Agreement and the European Agenda for Reform 2016) and the process of rapprochement between Kosovo and Serbia (Brussels Agreement 2013 and subsequent dialogue process) but also on the internal constitution of Kosovo itself.
On 24 February 2017, the Act on establishing the Kosovo Judicial Academy came into force, replacing the Kosovo Institute of Justice. In the same month, this project organised a study visit for the heads of the two Councils of Judges and Prosecutors, the President of the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, the Executive Director of the Judicial Academy and other leading representatives of the Kosovo judiciary in Berlin and Brandenburg to present the fundamentals of German judicial basic and further training.
Since then, project work has focused on three main areas: strategy and organisational development of the Academy, reform of the legal traineeship for the judges and prosecutors (Initial Training Program) as well as drafting a basic and further training programme for administrative staff at courts and prosecutors’ offices. The legal traineeship training is still very academic and is of too little practical relevance.
Since May 2017, monthly workshops and round-table discussions with judges and prosecutors have been held to discuss and test the fundamentals of case-based training. Concrete court documents from Kosovo are being employed for this purpose, translated, didactically transformed and used as training material in “Train-the-Trainer” seminars. The final aim is to produce a training manual that will provide the younger generation of judges and prosecutors with new, more practical opportunities for basic and further training.
