The CEPEJ Guidelines to improve the judge's skills and competences, strengthen knowledge sharing and collaboration, and move beyond a culture of judicial isolation provide concrete tools to remedy to judicial isolation which could have been worsened with the health crisis.
The CEPEJ activities in Georgia and Latvia focus on this aspect.
On 17 February 2021: An “Evening talks” livestream session has been organised on the Facebook page of the Council of Europe office of Georgia. The session highlighted the elements and conditions that enable judges to break out of their isolation and provide a better quality of service (more information).
On 19 February 2021: the CEPEJ in cooperation with the Latvian Ministry of justice will organise a workshop on breaking up judge’s isolation during COVID 19 pandemic. Judges and representatives of the Latvian Court Administration will have an exchange of views about their experience, notably about working remotely and holding court hearings during the COVID19 pandemic, and will be presented experiences from other Council of Europe member States. They will also discuss the ways to strengthen knowledge sharing and collaboration, and move beyond a culture of judicial isolation.
The Latvian Project: “Strengthening the access to justice in Latvia through fostering mediation and legal aid services, as well as support to the development of judicial policies and to increased quality of court management”, is funded by the European Union via the Structural Reform Support Programme and in cooperation with the European Commission's DG Reform.
The Georgian project “Enhancing the accountability and the efficiency of the judicial system and the professionalism of lawyers” is part of the European Union/Council of Europe joint programme Partnership for Good Governance II co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe.