The Judicial Reform Working Group held its 5th meeting in Tbilisi on 20 March 2018 to discuss the 4th wave of judicial reform draft amendments. The meeting was chaired by the Parliamentary Speaker Mr Irakli Kobakhidze and moderated by Mr Cristian Urse, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Georgia.
The goal of the meeting was to review the progress achieved during the last year’s discussions on judicial reform and to draw the lines for further steps in this regard. Mr Irakli Kobakhidze referred to the successful conclusion of previous legislative reform, while pointing to the remaining challenges. Chief Justice Ms Nino Gvenetadze recalled the previous work of the Working Group and highlighted the importance of reflecting upon the international monitoring bodies’ recommendations, including GRECO’s recent evaluation report. Mr Cristian Urse reconfirmed the support of Georgia’s international partners to the implementation of the judicial reform and highlighted the need to meet the high expectations of Georgian society towards an independent, transparent, and efficient judiciary, while praising the participation of judges in the debates, in line with the recommendations of CCJE.
The fruitful discussions singled out the upcoming priorities of the judicial reform process, that participants committed to pursue actively and in close co-operation.
The Working Group on Judicial Reform is a platform of engagement initiated by the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, which brings together representatives of the Parliament, High Council of Justice, and Ministry of Justice, with the active support of international donors (the Council of Europe, the EU4Justice project, the USAID and the US Department of Justice).
The Working Group meeting was co-organised by the Council of Europe Project “Support to the Judicial Reform”, funded by voluntary contributions of Bulgaria, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Norway, the Slovak Republic and Sweden to support the implementation of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Georgia 2016 - 2019.
