Kazakhstan's judicial system assessed
Main task of the research is to identify the level of trust and satisfaction of citizens with the quality of work done by courts and legal services. The results of the research as a whole showed a positive tendency: over 80% of the Kazakhstan citizens are content with the fairness level of the tried cases. In 90 from 100 cases, judges attentively listen to the arguments of litigators, thus complying with the rules of the Code of Judicial Conduct. Similar tendency is noticed in the results of estimation made for the consistency of judges. More satisfactory picture is being observed in the level of citizens confidence to judges- 82,4% of responders express trust to judges, the press release of the UN Development Programme in Kazakhstan reads.
In questionnaire survey special attention was given to the quality of work of judicial clerks. It was found out, that more than 75% of responders, think clerks are friendly and polite. About 25% of responders expressed discontent with clerks who either do not show regard or behave unmannerly with citizens during work.
Some responders noted, it is necessary to improve organization of judicial proceedings. Key problem in this direction is delay in the beginning of court sessions. Over 40% of responders expressed concern and said it is necessary to plan correctly the time of court sessions.
Although answers given by the responders may be subjective, objectivity of investigation was ensured by work of independent interviewers, responders answered anonymously, and also, due to the fact, that the interviewers were not random-chosen people, but participants of judicial proceedings, who were involved in legal proceedings and directly came up with the work of the court.
In the future such researches will help develop the judicial system of the RoK in accordance with the Strategic Plan of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2011-2015.
The research was held within the framework of the joint project of the UN Development Programme and the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan with financial support given by the embassy of Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Republic of Kazakhstan called "Improving transparency and accountability of the judicial system" aimed at consolidation of transparency and accountability principles of the legal system.