Legal counseling services for victims of abuses or irregularities in administration and justice

Project title:

”Legal counseling services for victims of abuses or irregularities in administration and justice”, MySMIS code: 111830 / project code: SIPOCA377

Project partners

Transparency International Romania I The Romanian Association for Transparency, implements the project in partnership with: West University of Timisoara, "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu, University of Craiova, ”Babeș Bolyai” University, "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi, University of Bucharest.

General objective of the project:

Increase the access to justice for the citizen, especially for people from vulnerable groups who are victims of abuses or irregularities in public administration and the judiciary system, by creating and operating a center for documentation and assistance.

Existence of centers for documentation and assistance permits, also, the development of law professionals’ capacity to represent their interests and/or their clients in disputes or conflicts they have with public administration authorities or with the institutions of the judiciary system.

Specific objectives:

• Establishing in the first 6 months of the project and operationalizing within 16 months of the project, of 6 documentation and assistance centers for citizens who are victims of abuses or irregularities in public administration and the judiciary system, especially for vulnerable groups’ citizens

• The training of 150 persons who carry out or are authorized to carry out a legal activity, law specialists, as well as staff from judicial institutions or public administration to work/provide legal assistance or counseling to vulnerable groups

• Informing both citizens and the persons that carry out or are authorized to carry out a legal activity, the law specialists, about the legal assistance available for citizens, including newly opened centers, in a radio information campaign and caravans in the countryside for a period of 6 months

• Preventing abuse and irregularities in public administration and the judiciary system by strengthening alternative dispute resolution and dispute preventing methods, especially the graceful appeal and hierarchical appeal, based on three models of administrative procedures to assist and resolve citizens' complaints about abuses and irregularities

Expected results

• Increased degree of access to justice by providing support services in six operational centers in the first year of the project, supported by a web application, centers that provide documentation for lawyers and assistance to citizens, especially for those in vulnerable groups, who are victims of abuses or irregularities on the part of the public administration and the judiciary system

• Increased degree of awareness for 600 law specialists who are consulted and informed about documentation and assistance centers for citizens who are victims of abuses or irregularities on the part of the public administration and the judiciary system

• 150 persons who carry out or are authorized to carry out a legal activity, law specialists, as well as staff from judicial institutions or public administration, benefit from increasing the capacity, through informing and evaluating, in order to give assistance and legal counselling to citizens, especially for those from vulnerable groups who are victims of abuses or irregularities on the part of the public administration and the judiciary system

• Informing law specialists on solutions to ensure access to justice through a study of good practices regarding the access to justice, to legal assistance and advice, to alternative dispute resolution, including administrative disputes, in the Member States of the European Union and the Council of Europe, and by a study on the alternative administrative settlement of complaints and preliminary procedures in the practice of the Romanian authorities

• Increased capacity of civil society and institutions from this field to inform and educate the public by developing an information strategy on legal aid services tailored to impact especially on citizens belonging to vulnerable groups

• Increased degree of awareness of the public by conducting a national information campaign on legal aid services available to citizens and ensuring the visibility of the project

• Increased degree of access to justice for citizens who are victims of irregularities and abuse of public administration and the judiciary system, through the development and promotion of three model procedures for administrative assistance and alternative settlement of citizens' complaints

• Increased degree of access to justice for citizens through the possibility of using a guide on citizens' rights, which will support the work of the centers and will be the base for elaborating the procedures of assistance and alternative administrative settlement of citizen’s complaints

• 90 people from the public administration benefit from increased capacity to alternatively quickly resolve and/or avoid administrative disputes through training courses, seminars and post-training mentoring

Total value of the project

Is 6.645.492,33 lei, out of which the co-financing provided by the European Union and the national financing is 5.525.318,40 lei.

Implementation period:

July 2018 – March 2020