2022 marks the 20th anniversary of the work of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) on the protection and promotion of Human Rights and the Rule of Law in relation to the effective functioning of Justice.

Established by the Resolution Res(2002)12 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, the CEPEJ has focused on ensuring faster, more affordable, and fair justice services of a better quality, putting the needs of the court user in the centre of the judicial process.

During these years the CEPEJ members and experts has been jointing their main efforts in:
- turning the CEPEJ into a platform of inter-state co-operation and the best practices exchange;
- examining the results achieved by the different judicial systems via evaluation tools, using common tailormade statistical criteria in respect of participating States;
- defining concrete means to improve the functioning of the judicial systems in Europe, regard being had to the specific needs of each State, and facilitating the implementation of the international legal instruments concerning efficiency and fairness of justice;
- careful examining the information technologies and artificial intelligence justice tools, used in the justice system, to develop a framework for their operation in full accordance with core human rights principles;
- proposing to the competent instances of the Council of Europe the fields where it would be desirable to elaborate a new legal instrument.

The CEPEJ's work includes numerous guidelines and tools, including 15 on mediation, 16 on quality and efficiency, 5 on e-justice; more than 20 groups of indicators based on more than 300 questions also make it possible to better evaluate European judicial systems, but also well beyond.

The ceremony organized on the occasion of the CEPEJ 20th anniversary took place upon invitation of Maltese authorities in Valetta on 27 June 2022, as part of the 38th CEPEJ plenary meeting.
It was opened by a video address of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Ms Marija Pejčinović Burić, and the Minister of Justice of Malta, Mr Jonathan Attard, and further followed by a thematic discussions.

To know more about the 20th anniversary ceremony, please find below the video recording of the event and other related informational materials.