Council of Europe presented the analysis on the Council of Europe standards and national practices on confidential counselling gathering the members of the High Council of Justice, judges, representatives of the civil society and international organisations on 15 April.

The meeting was opened by the Head of the Council of Europe Office in Georgia Cristian Urse and the Secretary of the High Council of Justice Giorgi Mikautadze.

The Council of Europe international consultant overviewed the mechanisms of confidential counselling sharing recommendations that would help the judiciary to create a systematic approach to ethical matters. The implementation of a systematic approach was the main recommendation of the Group of States against Corruption in its fourth evaluation round for Georgia in January 2017, including the revision of Code on Ethics, providing Commentary to the Code and specific examples of potential ethical violations, and the introduction of a mechanism of confidential counselling for judges.

The meeting was organised within the framework of the Accountability Working Group 2017-2021 Judicial Strategy.  

The event was supported by the Council of Europe project “Support to the Judicial Reform in Georgia” funded by the voluntary contributions of Bulgaria, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, the Slovak Republic and Sweden to support the implementation of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Georgia 2016-2019.