A delegation of the UIHJ received in Moscow by the Minister of Justice of Russia

Contacts

The UIHJ has been in contact with the Russian Federation for many years, since a delegation had gone to Moscow. Since 2000, at the occasion of missions of expertise for the Council of Europe in Russia, the experts of the UIHJ Mathieu Chardon, Jos Uitdehaag and John Marston had approached the authorities and had presented at several occasions the UIHJ to the representatives of the ministry of Justice, without any apparent success. One will have needed a reorganization of the enforcement service last year and a visit in Paris of a delegation of the ministry of justice of the Russian Federation to the French national Chamber of judicial officers, in December 2005 (see our article on the site), organized by Acojuris, in which took part Mathieu Chardon, member of the Committee of the UIHJ, Patrice Nocquet, secretary of Acojuris and Agnès Lalardrie, adviser for the legal and judicial affairs with the embassy of France in Russia, to suddenly accelerate the whole process.

A visit in Moscow was very quickly decided, lead by Leo Netten, first vice-president, with Bernard Menut, secretary of the office and Mathieu Chardon, in order to organize the entry of the Russian Federation in the UIHJ.

A political good-will at the highest level

A working session was held on April 7 in the morning at the ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. Nikolay Vinnichenko, director of the service of judicial officers of the Russian Federation, and six high representatives in charge of the Enforcement service of the Russian Federation, took part in this meeting on the Russian side.

Mr. Vinnichenko said he was very pleased to accommodate the delegation in Moscow. The director of the Service of judicial officers indicated that the objective that had been fixed to join the row of the 63 Member States of the UIHJ was from now on close. Leo Netten stressed out that the exceptional welcome which had been reserved for the delegation demonstrated the good-will of the Russian Federation to approach the UIHJ. The first vice-president of UIHJ added that he was convinced of the benefit that each one could withdraw of this coming together in terms of co-operation.

A round table was then held during which Mr. Vinnichenko presented the Service of judicial officers of the Russian Federation. This service, he declared, is an executive body isolated but subordinated to the ministry of Justice and to the president of the Russian Federation. On its side, the delegation of the UIHJ presented our organization, its operating system and its mode of adhesion.

A meeting with the Minister of Justice

After these rich and profitable debates, the delegation was received at the end of the morning by Chaika Yuri Yakovlevich, federal Minister of Justice. Mr. Yakovlevich declared that he fully supported the adhesion of the federal service of judicial officers of the Russian Federation to the UIHJ as an associate member and that he was following closely this project. The Minister of Justice specified that this adhesion will facilitate the contacts with other countries and the study of the systems in place in those countries. “We count on your help, your assistance and your experience”, he concluded.

The considered cooperation agreement is being studied and should be finalized and signed soon. Following this extremely positive and promising visit, Jacques Isnard, president of the UIHJ, invited a delegation of the ministry of Justice to take part in the international congress of the UIHJ which will be held in Washington from the 26 to 28 April.