Dejure Foundation or Dejure (from the legal '' de jure'' or ''Democracy Justice Reforms''), created in 2016, is a Ukrainian non-governmental organisation that promotes

judicial reform in Ukraine Judicial reform in Ukraine is a set of legislative, institutional and personnel changes aimed at improving the Judiciary of Ukraine. The reform was launched in 2014 after the Revolution of Dignity and the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election. The ...

. Dejure analyses judges' integrity based on their records and monitors legal developments related to the judiciary of Ukraine.

Creation

Dejure Foundation was co-founded in 2016 by former judge at Vinnytsia District Court, Mykhailo Zhernakov, together with a former attorney and a civil society activist. The name ''Dejure'' was chosen to have the double meaning of the legal term '' de jure'', and as an acronym for ''Democracy Justice Reforms''.

Aims and methods

Dejure aims at helping to reconstruct the judiciary of Ukraine in a way that reduces the level of corruption in Ukraine. One of Dejure's methods is to collect information and the background, asset declarations, known real assets, and conduct of Ukrainian judges. Dejure also monitors proposed laws related to the Ukrainian judicial system.

Leadership, membership and structure

Mykhailo Zhernakov is one of the 2016 co-founders of Dejure, and was Chair of the Board . , Iryna Shyba, a lawyer and feminist, has been Executive Director since 2019. , Dejure had 17 members.

Actions

Dejure was one of the non-governmental organisations that played a key role in helping to support the legal and practical creation of the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine, one of the new anti-corruption institutions established in Ukraine in the 2010s. In 2020, the

European Endowment for Democracy The European Endowment for Democracy is a European non-governmental organisation with the stated purpose of promoting democracy, particularly in the European Neighbourhood, Turkey and the Western Balkans. It was established in 2013 following a p ...

described Dejure's role in

as "crucial". In 2020, Zhernakov of Dejure stated that many judges who had failed Dejure's integrity checks had not been dismissed, but "some of the most corrupt judges" had been removed as a result of Dejure's analyses, and Dejure's information distribution made "engag ngin illegal activities such as corruption or tax fraud ... more and more uncomfortable" for the judges. He felt that Dejure had "raised the integrity level" of Ukrainian judges. In 2021, Dejure objected to the Ethics Council's decisions in confirming several judges to the Supreme Council of Justice that Dejure and other civil society organisations, including Anti-Corruption Action Center, saw as having records lacking integrity and of having persecuted whistleblowers and anti-corruption activists. Dejure also obected to the Ethics Council's decision not to appoint Larysa Golnyk to the Supreme Council of Justice. Dejure described Golnyk as being seen by "many Ukrainians" as "the symbol of honesty, resilience and zero tolerance for any manifestations of corruption". In 2022, during the 2022 Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zhernakov claimed that Ukrainian civil society had "played an outsized role in kraine'sprogress over the recedingfew decades" and "prove itself during the" invasion as a significant component of Ukrainian society.

Awards

In 2021, Dejure Foundation was the winner of ''

Prospect Prospect may refer to: General * Prospect (marketing), a marketing term describing a potential customer * Prospect (sports), any player whose rights are owned by a professional team, but who has yet to play a game for the team * Prospect (mining ...

'''s "Democracy and Law Award" and overall "Think Tank of the Year Award".

References

External links

* {{official website Human rights organizations based in Ukraine