Skopje, 9 December 2021 (MIA) - On International Anti-Corruption Day, the Judicial Council urges citizens to report cases of corruption. Citizens and institutions must cooperate in order to achieve the goal of uncorrupt judiciary, the Judicial Council said in a press release on Thursday. “The Judicial Council expresses readiness to assist everyone who has encountered corruption in the courts and encourages citizens to report such cases instead of becoming a part of the cycle of corruptive behavior,” the release read. The Council reiterated that just a few months ago, it established a special commission for fight against corruption, tasked with checking the veracity of corruption reports in the judiciary. By implementing reforms in the judiciary, the Judicial Council aims to establish mechanisms for prevention of corruption and human rights protection. Digitalization of the judiciary will facilitate communication between citizens and institutions, but will also ensure transparency and lower corruption at courts, the release added. Moreover, it underlined that the Judicial Council has adopted a methodology for ranking of judges, as well as a methodology over case complexity. These documents will ensure better ranking of judges and evidence-based verdicts. Continued monitoring is set to lower the risk of corruption. “The Judicial Council’s end goal is to ensure the judiciary delivers justice quickly and efficiently. This will restore citizens’ trust in the judicial system and help end corruption,” the press release noted. Recent changes to the Law on Judicial Council, that enabled people to initiate investigations into judges’ responsibility, have upped the number of requests from a few to some 50 initiatives this year. This is just of the Judicial Council’s weapons in the fight against corruption. “We’re aware that corruption is a social phenomenon that will be hard to end, but we won’t give up fighting to ensure judges are honest and serve citizens, always putting justice above corruption,” read the release.