Founded in 2012, Borde Político is a NGO created with the purpose of developing digital tools for monitoring the performance of the Mexican Congress.
Through this platform, citizens can better know the work of their representatives and find interactive tools designed to function as simple mechanisms for consulting, displaying or disseminate relevant information related to both Chamber of the Mexican Congress.
Since 2013, through a specialized project named Borde Jurídico, the transparency effort extended to observe the work of the Judiciary Branch.
Its team consists of 13 people, which includes political scientists, designers, lawyers, philosophers and programmers is dedicated to digitize, illustrate and make available, in real time, information generated in the Congress and the Supreme Court. The digital platforms developed by Borde Político aim to encourage citizen contributions and debate to political processes and legislation.
In addition, Borde Político is part of the Opening Parliament Alliance (Mexico) and has established important partnerships to work on matters of open budget and legislative budgets with renowned civil society organizations in Mexico such as Fundar and Métrica Pública.
Twitter: @bordepolitico /@bordejuridico • Facebook: Borde Político, Borde Jurídico • Youtube: Borde Político, Borde Jurídico
The goal of the project was to examine the practices of data-collection, reporting, and analysis of performance data in the Bulgarian judicial system. Since by that moment there was no systemic analysis of the operation of the judiciary as a whole, the idea behind the project was to introduce a list of key indicators which will track its performance, and will both make its functioning more transparent to the public, and provide a more precise policy-making instrument to the Supreme Judicial Council.
A slow process and the complexity of the legal conditions connected to entries into commercial register led to a high number of mistakes in the registration applications handed to the courts. Mistakes in the applications lead to the courts returning the applications for review or for supplementary information. There was no standardized procedure and application format. A database of standard applications for the commercial register was created within the project and consequently published on the website of the Justice Ministry. Business and non-business applicants could then receive authoritative information concerning the requirements of individual courts, which increased the legal quality of individual applications and as a result partially simplified the registration process in the Czech Republic and narrowed down the room for corruption.
The main purpose of the project was to study the reaction of different institutions and players, who have an attitude to the problem with the corruption, such as media, the political actors, the government, the judicial system, the no- government sector, and the public at large. The project involved the creation of the task-force of experts, investigative journalists, and politicians which monitored and discussed institutional reaction to a number of cases of corruption during a period of ten months in Bulgaria. The “task-force”” organized four round tables discussion with the participation of legislators, heads of administrative agencies, NGOs and journalists.”
The roundtables were dedicated to evaluation of work and career development of judges, enhancing the accountability of judges towards the public, institutional guarantees of judicial independence.
The project aims to increase public confidence in the judiciary by assessing the status quo and offering solutions. Three thematic components that are focused on (1) The Judicial Code of Ethics (2) the assessment system of judges’ performance and skills (3) judges’ disciplinary action and other forms of accountability.
The first project phase consisted of survey of the state of affairs within the police force with the results published in May 2000. The second project phase consisted of comparison of anti-corruption strategies in the police forces in 25 countries with the publication “Crossing the Thin Blue Line”” as the output. With the help of the study, a “”Framework for an Anti-corruption Strategy for the Czech Police”” was designed in cooperation with representatives of the Ministry of Interior; Ministry of Justice; Police Presidium; Czech Police; Bureau of the Attorney General; judges; Office of the President; Ombudsman; Government Commissioner for Human Rights; non-profit organisations – Czech Helsinki Committee, People in Need, Civil Legal Observers. Another project activity was the introduction of regular integrity and ethics training for police and students of police schools; TIC initiated a pilot “Integrity and Ethics Course“ for police school teachers.”
The project sought to:
– inform and raise the awareness of young adults, especially those that (will) activate in fields frequently associated with small corruption;
– involve the professional associations from justice, public administration fields in promoting the legal stipulations and the deontological codes, and in promoting their self-regulation role, in order to increase their responsibility;
– strengthen TIR image as an organization with expertise in providing applicable models for reducing the small corruption phenomenon and to strengthen the role of the professional associations as promoters of an ethic and responsible attitude towards beneficiaries.
This campaig is the follow-up of a similar one developed in 2003-2004.
The project had two phases. The aim of the first phase of the project was to get information on how citizen-friendly and comprehensible are the courts of justice in Estonia. The initial analysis was based on the questionnaires filled in by the volunteer observers who attended the court sessions. The second phase of the project was concentrated on a legal analysis of corruption related cases handled in Estonian courts in the period of years 2002-2008 handled in Estonian courts in the period of years 2002-2008.
The main goal of this project was to analyze corruption cases handled in courts, in order to determine the areas that need more comprehensive attention independent from the authority of the state. The main question that this projects aimed to answer was as follows:
How have corruption crimes been handled in Estonian courts in a period where corruption as a phenomenon receives more and more domestic and international attention? The project analyzed the ability of the judicial system to react in an adequate manner to the need to have more efficient control over corruption; it also tried to map the main shortcomings of this activity. The analysis is based on files of existing finished (archived) court cases of corruption crimes handled in Estonian courts in the period of years 2002-2008 and also on national statistics regarding crime.
The determining and analyzing of the court cases related to corruption crimes took place as follows. First, a query was sent to the Ministry of Justice in order to attain an overview of all handled and archived corruption crimes in Estonian courts in the period of years 2003-2008. 2 The goal of this was to receive an exact list of all corruption crimes handled in Estonian courts in the specified time period, available and classified as criminal official misconduct.After that, archived court cases were requested from Estonian courts and were reviewed according to the methodology developed earlier.
The following courts were visited in order to attain the materials: Harju County Court, Järva County Court, Lääne-Viru County Court, Narva City Court, Pärnu County Court, Tallinn City Court, Viru Circuit Court. A total of 282 court cases were reviewed, detailing 978 different crimes that persons were charged with. The study included 417 persons (accused at trial), divided into 387 men (93%) and 30 women (7%). The age of these persons was relatively high (median value being 40.5 years of age), exceeding significantly the average age of criminals, the latter being in the early adulthood.
Conclusions: The official anti-corruption activity of Estonia until now considers primarily the simpler kind, i.e. low-level corruption. The Penal Code now includes more qualifications of crimes considered corruption crimes. That change has taken place in various chapters of the Penal Code and this makes it more difficult to attain an integral picture of the amount and dynamics of corruption crimes.
The objective of this project was to map perceptions of corruption. The research sample was 1000 respondents. Among the findings: 68% of respondents sensed bribery as a usual phenomenon. Bribery is tolerated more by men. Respondents’ opinion was that the most corruption can be found in public administrations and private sector communication. In the opinion of the respondents the most corrupted areas are administrations, the police, the justice system and the customs.
Ministry of Justice and Transparency International-Estonia made contract in 2008 with purpose to map corruption extent in journalism, also to raise ethical and corruptional awareness. As a result of project there was carried out research „Transparency in Estonian (TI) Journalism“ by NGO Research and Training Center of Journalism. Research was concentrated on two aspects. Firstly there was analyzed how Estonian journalism is considering corruption and throught that is developing conception and notions of society. Second goal was to observe journalism itself as part of public government and possibility to be menaced. In addition one part of analyze is forming research about corruption and its connections with media in different societies by TI -Slovenian expert Simona Habič . In November 2009 there were trainings/seminars to journalists in Tallinn and Tartu about results of this research.
The Clean Justice Initiative represents a work group that will periodically inform public opinion in a correct and consistent manner in respect to the quality of the activity of the judicial branch activity, by monitoring the process of reform and by evaluating governmental decisions and actions in the field.
The Clean Justice Initiative aims to : monitor the legislative process and the approval of draft law by the Government, especially in the case of emergency ordinances; monitor and evaluate the management of human, material and informational resources in the judicial and penitentiary system; to evaluate the quality of internal procedures and management from the Ministry of Justice and National Administration of Penitentiaries; to evalute judicial practice in cases of corruption; to evaluate the legislative process concerning the structures involved in fighting corruption and organised crime; to issue reports, recommendations and alternative policies on the above mentioned subjects.
Member organizations: The Academy for Advocacy, Civic Alliance, “Society for Justice -SoJust”” Association, Freedom House Rom”
The goal of the project was to raise entrepreneurship sector awareness about business ethics and to help to develop business ethics regulations by economic branches.
The project started in 1st January 2009 and sought to explain both to the entrepreneurship sector and to the wider public how important business ethic are in longer perspective.
During project examples of Nordic countries were brought. Nordic countries examples will be obtaining with help of Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry branches and TI-Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, also Ministry of Justice of Estonia.
The project focused on cases of conflict of interest in three courts in Albania: Court of Appeals in Tirana, First Instance Court of Vlora, First Instance Court of Shkodra.
TI Georgia’s on-going project (some independet stages are completed – impact can be judged) – Monitoring Georgia’s International Commitments – is funded by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. As the name would suggest, it aims to monitor, assess and evaluate international commitments Georgia has made, particularly those under the European Neighborhood Policy. Four specific sectors have been identified: (1) rule of law—judiciary, law enforcement institutions, and criminal justice; (2) human rights and fundamental freedoms; (3) business climate and economic development; and (4) security and conflict resolution.
The project is less about international commitments per se and more about the government’s commitment to and implementation of reforms. Reform, when initiated, is done so in an entirely ad-hoc manner and at the level of individual sectors, ignoring the importance of comprehensive and inclusive reform strategies. There is little input or oversight from the public or from experts who can accurately assess the work being done. In general, there has been a lack of information generated or circulated on the work of individual sectors, conflicting and inconsistent accounts of what changes are being made, and a general lack of understanding within the ministries themselves of what should be their medium- and long-term reform strategies.
TI Georgia’s project, by independently assessing the Government’s activities in comparison with its international commitments, by increasing public access to information on reforms, and providing the international community with an independent assessment of the reform process, fills an important gap. It acts as an early warning mechanism, giving warning of corruption, and as a catalyst for continuous re-planning and revision of decisions and procedures. In a broader sense, it seeks to ensure the development of a consistent and long-term reform strategy.
The project objectives are: Identifying and formulating international standards and norms in regard to the prosecutor’s office. This includes the following: 1. operative standards by which the effectiveness of the prosecutor’s office can be judged; 2. standards regarding ethics and human rights by which the activities of the prosecutor’s office can be judged; 3. employing the existing mechanisms for ensuring the independence, efficient functioning and effectiveness of the prosecutor’s office, as well as finding out the best practices; 4. promoting debates about the need to reform the prosecutor’s office in Bulgaria and seeking methods for its better organization, effectiveness and efficient functioning; 5. turning the research into a reliable tool for making reforms. The tool itself should serve before the institutions which have tendencies towards reform and thus promote the debate concerning the prosecutor’s office in the countries which urgently need such changes.
The project aimed at raising public integrity in the system of justice, offering support to victims of corruption and judiciary abuse, propose correcting mechanisms including advocacy and viable public policies. The National Radio was a partner in the project.
The major aim of the project is to establish and maintain the transparency and effectiveness of the Supreme Court of Cassation. The project aims to examine thoroughly the decisions taken by the Supreme Court of Cassation for the period of 2002, 2003 and 2004, which will permit an assessment of the activities of the institution. Subsequently, an objective analysis of the research results will be made, as the point is to draw major conclusions from the review of the decisions of Supreme Court of Cassation.
The project evaluated the perceptions of magistrates regarding the independence of the justice system, so as to lead to efficient measures to consolidate magistrates’ independence and level of responsibility, and to eliminate those negative aspects currently manifest within the Romanian justice system.
Among its activites the project counted: publicity and public awareness to promote case reporting, case intake, case investigation, case work with Public Prosecutors, public advocacy, media coverage.
The goal of the project was to identify and evaluate the perceptions of magistrates regarding their degree of professional independence, as well as the causes and circumstances with negatively or positively influence the independence of justice. The research aimed to be the starting point of efficient measures to consolidate magistrates’ independence and level of responsibility, and to eliminate those negative aspects currently manifest within the Romanian justice system. The project was developed at the request of the Superior Council of Magistracy.
To support in the discovery and identification of the cases of corruption in the judiciary system in the southern cities of the country, as well as the encouragement of the journalists and of the public in the denunciation of these cases on the media and to the specialized state institutions.
In state administration, the organization’s objectives are to enforce access to information and public participation in compliance with international agreements, to actively empower citizens facing attacks, and to strengthen accountability of public representatives. In judiciary, the project aims at strengthening public control over the quality of decision making, extend public access to decisions, start a qualified discussion on court rulings and on the issues of judicial ethics. These efforts will contribute to reduction of possibilities for interference with judicial independence. (source: http://www.ceetrust.org/grants-database/in-country-grants/slovakia.html). Legal support for individuals when access to information is denied by government authorities (mainly on municipal level). Via Iuris works on court cases with systemic character (precedence).
The project sought to:
– Undertake a survey regarding the basic state pillars and bring recommendations how to reduce corruption in this institutions;
– Publish the survey in National Integrity System Study in English language;
– Promote results of National Integrity System Study through mass media;
– Stimulate broader public discussion on anti-corruption issues;
– Strength the rule of the law;
– Improve accountability and transparency of the public sector.
Activites of the project included:
– Investigation of the corruption phenomenon on the ground i.e. in 11 basic state pillars (Government, Parliament, Judiciary, Prosecutors, Police,);
– Printing of the National Integrity System Study;
– Media presentation;
– Distribution of the Study.
The project was provoked by the need to facilitate the creation of an effectively functioning independent and transparent judicial system in Bulgaria and was concentrated on two main activity lines. The first included assessment of the effects and challenges of procedural reorganization provoked by the introduction of newly implemented anti-corruption policies for raising the effectiveness of court administration (implemented by a social survey in four district courts, a legal analysis and a national on-line survey). The second activity line envisaged the provision of an auspicious ground for discussing the results of the conducted surveys, including the located trends in public opinion, and creating concrete proposals for new policies and practices that are able to further facilitate the ongoing process of modernization in the work of courts (implemented by a national round table).