Open Data Portal for Judiciary (MK0178)

Which public problem is addressed by the commitment? Introduction of the electronic judicial portal of RNM (www.sud.mk) in 2017 was expected to contribute to greater transparency of the courts, but there are still major differences in respect to quality and scope of data made available by different courts. Information hosted on individual court websites are not unified, regularly published and updated, and not all data is published in open format. For example, court reports and work biographies of judges are not unified and not all of them are available on court websites, while in some cases information provided therein are unclear. Inconsistency and selective publication of data raise doubts about information being concealed from the public and directly affects citizens’ trust in the judiciary as the third branch of government. Moreover, the courts are not proactive in sharing information on asset declarations of judges, whereby sections hosting work biographies of judges do not provide hyperlinks to SCPS’s website where asset declarations of all judges are published. Not all courts have published data related to free access to public information (person responsible for free access to information, e-mail/telephone), and there is no regular practice in place for publication of information that have been requested under the instrument for free access to information. Openness is necessary for improving public trust in the courts and the overall justice system, and for facilitating public understanding on who and how is justice delivered by the courts. In that, openness is one of key components of the court process’s legitimacy and reason contributing to the public’s low trust in performance and decisions taken by the courts. The judicial portal is not adjusted for use by persons with impaired sight.

Main objective of the commitment • To provide standardized and unified information and data about the courts and their jurisprudence, and to increase scope of judiciary data published in open format; • To expand scope of data made available in open format and hosted on the portal; • To increase scope and to improve quality of data and information published;

How will the commitment contribute to addressing the public problem? Increased scope, improved quality and regular updating of data published on the judicial portal will lead to introduction of new practices in the Macedonian judiciary that requires transparent and accountable, but primarily, visible performance of the courts for citizens in RNM.

How is this commitment relevant to OGP values? The commitment ensures access to more information, improves quality of data and improves availability of public information, and is therefore relevant for transparency.

Additional information Link to SDG16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions SDG target 16.6: Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels SDG target 16.10: Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements This commitment will contribute to improved accountability of all actors in the judiciary, by improving and increasing the scope and quality of data published on the judicial portal.

No. Milestone (enlist activities that will contribute to commitment implementation) Indicators (enlist measurable indicators/benchmarks for monitoring and verification of milestone achievements) Activity holder (government institution, CSOs or other) Start date End date 1.1.1 Define the catalogue of open data and standardize quality and scope of information according to previous practices for publication of information on the judicial portal, FOI requests and already available analyses on transparency and openness of the judiciary Reduced number of requests for information submitted to the courts in RNM Supreme Court of RNM, Center for Legal Research and Analyses October 2021 March 2022 1.1.2 Develop compliance assessments for all courts in respect to defined catalogue of open data and standardized quality and scope of information Reduced number of requests for information submitted to the courts in RNM Supreme Court of RNM, Center for Legal Research and Analyses March 2022 May 2022 144 1.1.3 Implement necessary improvements and publish open data and information of standardized quality, based on individual assessments made for all courts Web-portal with standardized information and data for the public Supreme Court of RNM, Center for Legal Analyses January 2022 May 2022 1.1.4 Improve and adjust contents on the judicial portal for use by persons with impaired sight, by providing audio versions of principles legal opinions and sentences delivered by the Supreme Court of RNM Integrated text-tospeech tool on the Supreme Court’s website Supreme Court of RNM, Center for Legal Research and Analyses May 2022 December 2022

Action Plan Review

Commitment 1.1: Improve the electronic judicial portal of RNM (http://www.sud.mk)

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Modest