Age: 27
Education: Kyiv National University, Bologna University, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Warsaw School of Economics
Profession: Lawyer
Did you know? Iryna Shyba promotes efforts to introduce child-friendly and business-friendly justice
Reforming one of the most corrupt judiciary systems in the world is a Herculean task.
Iryna Shyba, the executive director of a legal think tank DEJURE Foundation, has taken up the challenge.
Born in Lviv Oblast, Shyba graduated from Kyiv Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University in 2014. Then she decided to study abroad and enrolled at a law program at Bologna University, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Warsaw School of Economics in 2015 to 2016.
She worked at the Economic Development and Trade Ministry in 2017 and later joined the DEJURE Foundation. The think tank’s main goal is to purge corrupt judges from the judiciary.
Ex-President Petro Poroshenko’s record on cleaning the judiciary has faced criticism from the Public Integrity Council civil society watchdog, as well as from anti-corruption watchdogs and legal experts.
Under Poroshenko, the High Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission of Judges appointed 44 Supreme Court judges who the Public Integrity Council says violated integrity and ethical standards. The Public Integrity Council has also lambasted the High Qualification Commission for appointing tainted judges and for its arbitrary methodology, which allowed the commission to appoint judges without providing justifications. The High Qualification Commission and the High Council of Justice have denied wrongdoing.
The DEJURE Foundation has supported a recently passed law to replace the discredited High Qualification Commission of Judges, as well as a proposal to amend the Constitution to replace and reform the High Council of Justice.
Passed in October, the legislation aims to re-launch the judicial reform that President Volodymyr Zelensky’s team says Poroshenko sabotaged.
The law envisages fully replacing the members of the High Qualification Commission of Judges, the agency that vets and hires judges. The bill also stipulates that a new ethics commission will be able to fire members of the High Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission if they violate the law or ethics standards.
Foreign experts are expected to take part in the ethics commission and the replacement of the High Qualification Commission, ensuring they are politically independent.
Shyba argued, however, that the process may be derailed if the Council of Judges and the High Council of Justice drag their feet on delegating their members for participation in the reform, as required by law.
The bill also stipulates halving the number of Supreme Court judges from 200 to 100 and selecting a new, smaller Supreme Court from the existing judges.
However, it is not clear if the authorities will fire tainted judges or only those disloyal to the new authorities.
“Halving the Supreme Court without strict criteria risks the court becoming (politically) dependent,” Shyba said.
Members of the Public Integrity Council have also criticized the bill for failing to replace all members of the unreformed High Council of Justice. Civil society has called for re-launching the council, and Zelensky’s team previously promised to do so.
Another sphere of DEJURE’s activity is “child-friendly justice,” she said. This includes efforts to protect the rights of juvenile delinquents in the Ukrainian justice system. The program aims to ensure that such trials comply with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. A third area is effective justice for businesses, Shyba said. This includes the creation of arbitration courts as an alternative to state courts for resolving commercial disputes.
