2020-04-22

West Bank

West Bank / position paper

The Statement of the Head of the Transitional Judicial Council Reaffirm the Failure of the Executive Authority to Face the Justice Crisis

MUSAWA- the Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession has listened to the statements made by the president of the Transitional High Judicial Council for Palestine Television on the judicial situation, which clearly showed several facts, the most prominent of which are:

1. A confession of failure, incompetence, and the deepening of the crisis of judicial accumulation since the beginning of the judicial year.
2. Recognizing the deepening of the structural and human crisis that the judiciary was and is still suffering from, and attempting to impose its liability on thirty judges who are not competent to hold the judicial office.
3. Suggesting that his task is not yet complete, which requires the extension of the transitional council's term or converting it into a permanent council, blaming the executive authority for not cooperating with him in issuing his proposed new legislation, appointments, dismissals, or referral to retirement, which rewards the corrupt and violates the dignity of the honorable.
4. The ardent desire to amend the Judicial Authority Law or the decree-law that provided for it, to grant the President of the Transitional Council a wide scope of freedoms and to limit the scope of powers of judges and employees, so that he can control their job security.

Such statements reaffirm the executive authority's failure to reform or confront the justice crisis, and that the real alternative to finding a way out of this crisis is through solving the problem of structural imbalance and human performance under the supervision of an impartial authority or committee that evaluates the performance of the judiciary, prosecution, and constitutional court’s personnel, and to keep those competent in their offices, hold the corrupt accountable, and refer the incompetent individuals to other offices or retirement if needed.

This is what we have been always calling for, which requires formal recognition that the judicial crisis is not a crisis of legislation, but rather an institutional and performance crisis, implying a practical political will to recognize the status quo, start the reform process, and put an end to repeating the mistakes of the past. The Transitional President's statements revealed the truth and futility of the transitional council, the question now; will the transitional council be dissolved? Will the hegemony of the executive authority be ended?

Issued on 22/4/2020

MUSAWA