History
The Innovation Team originated in the preparations for the International Congress of Judicial Officers of Cape Town, South Africa, in 2012. Mathieu Chardon, former 1st Vice-President of the UIHJ, set up a “Grand Questionnaire” working group to launch this immense project which made it possible to collect countless information on our profession from all the members of the UIHJ.
During the International Congress of Judicial Officers of Madrid, Spain, in 2015, the “Grand Questionnaire” working group was enlarged and proposed to develop the “Grand Questionnaire” as it existed on the former site of the UIHJ towards a more modern and efficient tool being the “Survey Monkey”, a tool that allows to be more responsive to requests from members of the UIHJ.
As the work and discussions between the UIHJ board and the “Grand Questionnaire” working group progressed, the subjects became more and more varied and broader than the questionnaires.
This was particularly true at the time of the preparations for the International Congress of Judicial Officers of Bangkok, Thailand, in 2018. Little by little, under the leadership of Honorary President Françoise Andrieux, this group began, de facto, to be seen as proposing innovative ideas such as the use of technological tools like video presentation in Bangkok, as well as the reactivation of social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
The idea naturally came from Honorary President Andrieux to name this group “Innovation Team” and to perpetuate its existence as a permanent working group within the UIHJ.
The first three members of this group were Jona Van Leeuwen (Netherlands), Fanny Cornette (Netherlands) and Patrick Gielen (Belgium).
Missions of the Innovation Team
The missions of the Innovation Team are not fixed in advance and have been put in place over the years according to the needs of UIHJ.
Grand Questionnaire “Survey Monkey”
This is the first mission for the Innovation Team. Since the use of Survey Monkey, questionnaires have grown in importance within UIHJ. Now we have no less than 20 different questionnaires. Besides the 6 main questionnaires, we have various questionnaires carried out either at the request of certain member countries of the UIHJ, or within the framework of certain European projects, or for the various international organizations with which the UIHJ works closely.
Not only does the Innovation Team manage the updating of the various existing questionnaires but it can also create new questionnaires, either at the request of the UIHJ board or at the request of a member of the UIHJ.
From these questionnaires were created the country files which are available on the website of the UIHJ.
The Innovation Team also takes care of updating the database for each country and is available to all members to help them complete the questionnaires.
Reports
The Innovation Team can also extract from the reports the items found in the Grand Questionnaire on a specific topic concerning the profession of judicial officer. Various reports have already been written on the themes of statements of facts, training, service of documents, as well as on the status of the judicial officer.
Video production
One thing leading to another, the Innovation Team proposed the creation of – mainly animated – videos, in order to either present the annual Activities Report of the UIHJ to the permanent council of the UIHJ or to introduce workshops during the International Congress of Judicial Officers, organized by the UIHJ.
Use of new technologies
The Innovation Team also regularly offers the use of new technologies at various events such as international congresses of judicial officers, permanent councils of the UIHJ, UIHJ board meetings.
Social media management
Since 2017, the Innovation Team has also taken over the management of social networks (Facebook and LinkedIn). These networks have since become an important showcase for UIHJ and make it possible to follow everything that is happening there daily. To date, Facebook contains more than 2500 “likes”, LinkedIn more than 2000, and Instagram approximately 1000 which allows optimal dissemination of the activities of the UIHJ.
Participation in the various workgroups of the UIHJ
The members of the Innovation Team are also very active in the various working groups (WG) of the UIHJ. see below
The members of the Innovation Team are also very active in the various working groups (WG) of the UIHJ.
Composition of the Innovation Team
- Tereza Lungova (Czech Republic)
- Maxime Assogba (Bénin)
- Ana Arabuli (Georgia)
- Alex Irvine (Scotland)
- Gabrielle Lorea Gomes (Brazil)
- Edgar Landze (Congo)
- Patrick Gielen (Secretary General UIHJ)
Former members of the Innovation Team:
- Malone Cunha (Brazil)
- Risto Sepp (Estonia)
- Rui Miguel Simão (Portugal)
- Jose Cardoso (Portugal)
- Florent Mounguengui (Gabon)
- Małgorzata Pędziszczak (Poland)
- Fanny Cornette (France)
- Jona Van Leeuwen (The Netherlands)
- Reda Bougrine (Algeria)
- Elin Villipus (Estonia)
