Programme: Justice

The project will contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the Updated Strategy to Continue the Reform of the Judicial System, and is created on the basis of the identified needs in the Bulgarian judicial system, related to the improvement of the specific procedures and rules for career development, appointment and selection of magistrates and better management and administration of the judiciary. During the mutual visits, the practices of the Norwegian judiciary will be explored in order to identify practices and procedures, strengths and weaknesses, and identify mechanisms for adapting the good practices in the Bulgarian judicial system.
The project will contribute to improving the efficiency of the judiciary by improving the procedures for the appointment, selection and career development of magistrates, strengthening the capacity of the members of the Bulgarian judiciary to comply with and implement the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights. At the same time, the project will propose measures to promote the restorative justice approaches and their implementation in the Bulgarian context.
The project includes the following activities:
• Actions developed to ensure improvement in Bulgarian judiciary through introduction of procedures with clear rules for appointment and selection of magistrates, as well as clear rules for career development of magistrates based on professional and personal qualities;
• Strengthened capacity in application of the European Convention on Human Rights through secondment of judges to the European Court of Human Rights;
• Improvement of the restorative justice implementation through capacity/knowledge - building and a study on the restorative justice mechanisms implemented in the judicial systems of Norway.