On 20 November 2013, the VI Congress of Judges of the Republic of Kazakhstan was held in Astana. The holding of the regular forum of the judicial community coincided with the period of implementation of the Strategy “Kazakhstan-2050”. The tasks set by this document required the reformatting and modernisation of all state institutions, and the judicial system was no exception.

A landmark event for the Union of Judges of Kazakhstan was the status of a full member of the International Association of Judges obtained for the first time in its history in 2011. This became evidence of international recognition of the republic’s achievements in the field of justice. The entry of Kazakhstani judges into the global professional community opened up opportunities for the exchange of experience and comparison of their own practice with the best foreign standards.

The work of the VI Congress of Judges was attended by the leaders of the state and central government bodies, foreign delegations — Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation Sergey Amosov, First Deputy Chairman of the International Union of Lawyers Alesker Tagiyev, UN Resident Coordinator Stephen Tull, representatives of the judicial systems of foreign states — Germany, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, the UAE and Ukraine.

The central idea of the President’s speech was the thesis that an independent and fair court is the backbone of a developed state. Without citizens’ trust in justice, neither economic prosperity, nor social stability, nor the protection of human rights is possible. This idea became the leitmotif of the entire congress, determining the direction of the key reforms under discussion.

Five tasks were set before the judicial community at the VI Congress: consistent improvement of legislative norms (the Government, together with the Supreme Court, was instructed to develop a draft of a new Civil Procedure Code), improvement of the judicial system, introduction of alternative methods of resolving disputes and conflicts, ensuring access to justice for broad sections of citizens, and raising the professionalism of the judicial corps of Kazakhstan.

In their speeches, the participants and delegates of the congress did not limit themselves to declarations and outlined specific measures to improve the judicial system. First of all, it was proposed to increase the staffing of judges in order to reduce the excessive workload that negatively affects the quality of case consideration. In addition, there was talk of further informatisation of the courts, which makes justice more accessible. An important direction was named the development of specialisation of judges, allowing for a deeper understanding of complex categories of disputes. Finally, it was proposed to introduce the institution of investigating judges, designed to strengthen judicial control at the pre-trial stage and more reliably protect the rights of citizens during the investigation.

Particular attention at the congress was paid to the fight against corruption and the improvement of the public image of the judiciary. These issues are closely interrelated: the authority of the court directly depends on the impeccable reputation of judges and their integrity. Only open and honest work can restore and strengthen public trust.

And in the light of the proposals voiced, after the VI Congress of Judges the Supreme Court carried out enormous work to improve legislation.

From 1 January 2015, the new Criminal, Criminal Procedure and Criminal Executive Codes of the Republic of Kazakhstan entered into force.

On 31 October 2015, the Civil Procedure Code was signed in a new edition. This law significantly simplified legal proceedings for the population and widely introduced new tools for the reconciliation of parties at any stage of a dispute. From 1 January 2016, the CPC of the Republic of Kazakhstan entered into force.

The Civil Procedure Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the new edition provides for the wide application of conciliation procedures and alternative methods of dispute resolution.

To support the population living in remote areas, as well as for their free access to the services of the institution of conciliation procedures, mediation offices were opened at district akimats, and Mediation Centres also began operating at the branches of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan in the regions.

To motivate the parties to conclude agreements at the early stages of the process, the state duty is returned in full in the courts of first and appellate instances, and in the courts of cassation and supervisory instances — in the amount of 50% of the originally paid sum.

A transition was made from a five-tier to a three-tier system of justice. The new model of legal proceedings fully complied with international standards and allowed court decisions to enter into force more quickly, reducing the possibility of artificial prolongation of the process.

The reduction in the number of judicial instances strengthened the role of the courts of first and appellate instances.

A specialised judicial board was created in the Supreme Court, to whose jurisdiction were assigned disputes involving major investors, cases on applications challenging decisions and actions of the Central Election Commission, and administrative cases.

On 15 January 2016, to introduce the best international standards and practices, an International Council was established under the Supreme Court as a consultative and advisory body with the participation of authoritative foreign judges and lawyers. The right of the court to request opinions of scholars and specialists of the International Council when considering investment disputes was enshrined in law, and the first expert opinions were received.

The scope of application of the jury trial was expanded. An effective mechanism for protecting the rights of citizens involved in the sphere of criminal proceedings is the activity of investigating judges.

In the CPC of the Republic of Kazakhstan as amended from 1 January 2015, the authorisation of 12 types of investigative actions was assigned to their powers. The powers of investigating judges were later expanded by the criminal procedure law — four more types of investigative actions were additionally assigned to their competence.

To simplify judicial procedures and speed up the judicial process in accordance with the requirements of the new Civil Procedure Code, the participation of the prosecutor in court in civil disputes was reduced.

In parallel, the selection of candidates for judicial positions was tightened, which made it possible to form a high-quality composition of the personnel corps. The legislation introduced the requirement of five years of work experience related to participation in legal proceedings.

The period of internship in the courts for candidates for judges was increased to one year, with a break from the main place of work, with payment of 70% of a judge’s salary for up to a year.

Conditions were created for society to participate in the selection of new judges. For this purpose, Councils for interaction with the courts were established in all regional courts in 2016, which necessarily consider each candidate for judge. Their task is to study the moral character of the applicant.

In order to strengthen the interrelation between training and judicial practice, the Institute of Justice was transferred from the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. The Institute was transformed into the Academy of Justice, with the establishment under it of an institute of postgraduate education (master’s degree), centres for advanced training, academic programmes and a research centre.

One of the tasks set before the judicial system at the VI Congress of Judges was the introduction of mandatory audio and video recording of all court proceedings. At the same time, a centralised data storage system is provided, integrated with the judicial bodies’ system “Torelik” and the online service “Judicial Cabinet”. The introduction of the institution of audio and video recording of court proceedings was another step towards creating justice that is adequate to the challenges of the time, mobile, transparent, accessible to all and based on the rule of law, when a judge does not have the opportunity to suspend recording or edit the materials of audio and video recording.

All these measures made it possible to improve the indicators of the judicial system of the Republic of Kazakhstan, influencing their growth in all the most significant international rankings: in the “Judicial Independence” index it rose by 14 positions, indicators in the world ranking of the rule of law compiled by the international non-governmental organisation World Justice Project improved by six points, and according to the World Bank’s “Doing Business – 2016” report, Kazakhstan also improved its ranking in the “Enforcing Contracts” indicator by five positions.

The improvement of the indicators of judicial activity in the rankings of these international organisations was the result of purposeful activity to modernise the judicial system and legal proceedings.

Thus, as a result of the decisions taken at all six congresses of judges, a sufficiently strong judicial power was formed in the country. This consolidated a sense of security and stability in our society, confidence that the laws work, and that any citizen can defend his or her interests. After all, trust in the state is the most important indicator of the performance of the country’s courts.

And in this, a special role was played by the VI Congress of Judges, becoming an important stage in the development of the judicial system of Kazakhstan, confirming the course towards building independent, effective and open justice that meets the requirements of international standards. The decisions of the congress determined the path along which the judicial community moved in building a solid foundation of a rule-of-law state.

Asem SAKENOVA