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FrançaisLegal aid system strengthens its independence
On 24 May 2016, the Minister of Justice Pavlo Petrenko, the Minister of Education and Science Liliia Hrynevych and the Director of the Quality and Accessible Legal Aid in Ukraine Project Larissa Bezo met with law students who graduated from higher educational institutions and were about to start their career.
According to Pavlo Petrenko, the Ministry of Justice has always been one of the most closed bureaucratic ministries. “The Ministry of Justice should have a completely different face, and we have been consistently moving in this direction over the past two years“, he said. Pavlo Petrenko reminded that this year, at the Ministry of Justice, the Soviet-style district justice departments were liquidated, and it was decided to create completely new offices, i.e. the legal aid bureaus, where everyone could get legal aid, access to lawyer’s services and digital services of the Ministry of Justice.
“Therefore, we want to attract the maximum number of young professionals who have recently graduated from universities, and those students who are about to graduate from law schools and have a bachelor’s degree, for their first job in a legal aid bureaus“, said the head of the Ministry of Justice. He drew attention to the fact that before, starting lawyers without any professional experience had little chances to get a job in the public sector. Currently, they have such an opportunity within the framework of the open competition for heads of legal aid bureaus. According to him, in the bureaus, starting lawyers will be able to get a competitive salary, opportunities for obtaining professional experience and, accordingly, realizing themselves as lawyers.
“Today, we are holding this event together with Liliia Hrynevych, in order attract the maximum number of people who have just graduated from higher educational institutions to the new system of the Ministry of Justice, by way of the two ministries informing them. We invite young people with bachelor’s degree in law and desire to work in a new team, who are motivated to change their country to come work in the bureaus“, he said.
The Minister of Education and Science Liliia Hrynevych welcomed the initiative of the Ministry of Justice on the employment of higher educational institutions graduates. “This is a unique situation where the lack of experience can just inspire new values and new opportunities in a system that has to change its quality through new people who join it“, she said.
Pavlo Petrenko informed that in order to participate in the competition, it is necessary to fill in the online application form on the website http://legalaid-jobs.in.ua/. Applications may be submitted till May, 31. Further, he reminded that the applicants would need to follow a distance learning course and go through an interview with the competition commission. He informed that since the announcement of the competition, over 3.3 thousand candidates showed their interest in participation, of them 20% had a bachelor’s degree.
Director of the Quality and Accessible Legal Aid in Ukraine Project Larissa Bezo shared her thoughts about attracting young specialists to the legal aid bureaus. According to her, the LA system in Canada in different provinces is considered as a good development field for youth: “Even our graduates from Canadian law faculties believe that one of the best ways to gain new knowledge and work experience is to move to the legal aid system. And I would say that this is one of very good prospects of career growth“.
She emphasized that for the bureaus, that would be created in Ukraine, and the professionals who would work there already in autumn, it would be a very good opportunity. “At the bureaus, the youth specialists will have opportunities to develop their competencies, knowledge and skills. On our part, from the Canadian side, we are pleased to be able to support this activity and we hope very much that the next wave of initiatives by the Ministry of Justice will provide a very important step towards access to justice and these changes at the public level in Ukraine in general“, she concluded.
“I am grateful to our Canadian friends who help us in developing the legal aid system“, said the Minister of Justice.
It should be recalled that the competitive selection of the heads of legal aid bureaus takes place from April 4 to July 15, 2016. The stage of collecting electronic applications from candidates will end on May 31. On 8-17 June, the applicants who meet the formal requirements will be invited to complete an online distance learning course. Interviewing candidates who have successfully completed a distance course will take place from June 30 to July 15, 2016.
To learn more about all conditions of the competition, follow the link.
The methodological support of the competition is provided by the Quality and Accessible Legal Aid in Ukraine project, implemented by the Canadian Bureau for International Education and funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs of Canada.
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