At the closing conference for the “Judicial Academy Capacity Building” Project, Minister of Justice Nela Kuburović stated that, although the Academy’s existence was not being questioned, strategic guidelines on its future work needed to be produced in light of the future constitutional amendments relating to the judicial and prosecutorial election procedure. She noted that the Academy had been built on the foundations of the EU acquis with an aim of one day becoming an inevitable point of entry into the judiciary for judges and prosecutors. She explained that achieving the aim had not been easy, but that it would remain the focus in the upcoming period.
She recalled that the Judicial Academy began working in 2010, consequently establishing legal and institutional frameworks for a novel education of judges, prosecutors and other employees of the judiciary. “In a single year, close to 10,000 judges, deputy public prosecutors and prosecutorial associates had perfected their professional knowledge at the Academy through regular or special training”, Kuburović noted. She stressed the important role which the Judicial Academy had had in training around 1,800 judges, prosecutors and police officers for the application of the new Domestic Violence Prevention Act, including the fact that in 2016 it had successfully organised a comprehensive training for the application of the new Enforcement and Security Act.
Kuburović noted that the implementation of a large anti-corruption project had recently begun through IPA 2013. She explained that a significant portion of the implementation would be led by the Academy by way of organising and conducting training for the new Organisation and Competencies of Government Authorities in Fighting Corruption, Terrorism and Organised Crime Act and the new amendments to the Criminal Code, the application of which she said was due on 1 March 2018. She highlighted that the Ministry of Justice was continuously following the Academy’s work and supporting it with capacity building (both in terms of infrastructure and education). Inter alia, she gave the example of the Ministry having secured a new building in the centre of Belgrade of 3,500 square metres in space to house the Academy.
In conclusion, the Minister thanked the USAID for having funded the “Judicial Academy Capacity Building” Project and for having shown the Ministry and other judicial institutions great support in strengthening the rule of law over the past ten years.
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