State Justice in Human Service

Key conclusions

Systems used to provide legal services to the public should be customer-focused

“In the Russian Federation, 32 million people, even a little more, are entitled to free legal assistance. Unfortunately, though, not everybody knows this [...] In 2020, we provided just over 240,000 consultations, which [...] is less than 1%. We refused to tolerate this, and starting in 2021 we began to actively develop this project [of legal assistance], while basing it on customer centricity, which is expressed by providing this service proactively. We have begun work to create a legal aid portal, while at the same time creating a register of citizens who are entitled to free legal aid. In this regard, based on the results of 2022, we are scheduled to launch a pilot project – a Legal Assistance portal in ten regions of the Russian Federation, and next year, I think, it will operate in all regions,” Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation Konstantin Chuychenko said.

“Kazakhstan has set up 21 administrative courts that only consider disputes between citizens and the state. Until 2021, the probability of a citizen winning [a case] over the state was 15%. This year, during which the administrative courts are working, citizens are winning 60% of cases against the state. The burden of proving legality lies with the state body, and citizens are not obliged to prove anything,” Minister of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kanat Mussin said.

“We are creating a legal aid service under the Ministry of Justice, which will not involve consultations from or the direct provision of lawyers in criminal cases, but will play a mediating role to some extent in interaction between citizens and government agencies. We realized that the justice system is of particular importance in protecting and representing the interests of citizens in their relations with other government agencies [...] We are trying to resolve a legal conflict in mediation even before it is formalized,” Minister of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic Ayaz Baetov said.

Cooperation and sharing experience in an effort to build national legal systems

“The effective administration of justice and access to human rights are needs whose importance goes beyond the confines of a single state. International cooperation in this regard is also one of our primary needs. By participating in this forum, we hope to benefit from the exchange of experience. This forum is also an opportunity to unite people in improving our national legal systems, taking into account the global legal order, which must be fair and inclusive,” Minister of Justice and Human Rights of the Republic of Angola Manuel Monteiro de Queiroz Francisco said.

“We are highly interested in how state justice is developing today in the Russian Federation. This, of course, is a great experience, given the number of regions, the population, and, of course, the conditions of global turbulence in which we are all currently living,” Minister of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kanat Mussin said.

PROBLEMS

Global instability challenging international law

“The world is currently going through turmoil and changes with a significant increase in instability and uncertainty as the changes of this century and a centuries-old epidemic [COVID-19] overlap with each other. In the face of difficult situations, China will firmly support the international system [...] We must uphold and promote the spirit of the international rule of law, include international cooperation in the rule of law in important issues concerning bilateral and multilateral relations, intensify exchanges, strengthen the consensus, and deepen multi-level, multi-channel, and all-round cooperation in the rule of law,” Minister of Justice of the People’s Republic of China Tang Yijun said.

“In Syria, we are fighting terrorism on behalf of all mankind [...] We have addressed the terrorism court about these issues, we have court decisions that meet all legal parameters, and we observe the laws even with respect to people who came to our country to cause unrest there. The country’s president has issued a decree on amnesty, but [...] terrorists who don’t have Syrian citizenship were excluded from this amnesty due to our conviction that the export of terrorism to other countries runs counter to international law, and this is not modern thinking that is shared by the Syrian Arab Republic,” Minister of Justice of the Syrian Arab Republic Ahmad Al-Sayyed said.

SOLUTIONS

Legal assistance should be available to the public regardless of where they live

“We are currently developing the Mobile Office project for free legal aid [...] Last year, we sent thirty such mobile offices to the regions. We are now sending nineteen, and before the New Year another thirty more should be sent to the regions. Above all, we are taking this project to the place where state legal bureaus will be created because this is an effective mechanism for providing free legal assistance,” Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation Konstantin Chuychenko said.

“In Armenia, four joint offices have been established in the four largest cities, where the state only provides 110 services in eight sectors, and work is underway to open another centre in the next big city […] In order to ensure greater accessibility to public services in all regions of Armenia, the Civic Centre will develop joint offices. At the same time, the unified Civic Centre electronic platform will be created and introduced. We expect to adopt the experience of the Russian Federation in this project because there have already achieved results that are very interesting to us,” Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Karen Andreasyan said.

Actively introducing digital services will help improve the quality and accessibility of public services

“We are actively developing the system of registry offices. By mid-2023, we have plans to transition to a completely new model – the so-called registry model. Going forward, our citizens will no longer have to obtain certificates on paper. Everything will be in electronic form, and any state body will be able to independently request the relevant data and receive the corresponding extract just like a citizen,” Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation Konstantin Chuychenko said.

“We are keeping up with the latest trends. As for electronic digital services, portals, and free legal advice, we have several legal portals that include numerous attorneys and lawyers, and any citizen has the opportunity to get any advice he/she needs […] We always strive to provide a quick and convenient legal service to citizens as well as to increase the number of digital services,” Minister of Justice of the Syrian Arab Republic Ahmad Al-Sayyed said.

Get the private sector involved in certain public functions

“Today, 94% of our public services are provided in electronic format. The Ministry of Justice is in charge of 47 services, of which 26 are electronic and 21 are in electronic and paper form. This year, a pilot project was implemented to provide the state service of Child Birth Registration, which includes changes, additions, and corrections to civil status records in the mobile application of one of Kazakhstan’s largest banks [...] We use both the e-government platform and the platforms of commercial organizations, including banks, which have a large number of depositors and a well-developed electronic ecosystem,” Minister of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kanat Mussin said.

“We are actively transferring issues involving state functions to the private sector, while, of course, maintaining control mechanisms […] Just recently, we submitted a law on private bailiffs for public discussion and are now holding talks with the Supreme Court of the Kyrgyz Republic about how we should also outsource there,” Minister of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic Ayaz Baetov said.

For more, see the ROSCONGRESS.ORG Information and Analytical System.

Share: