The international conference on ‘The Role of Women Judges in the Judiciary’ took place on 5 November 2018 in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Cristian Urse, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Tbilisi, Peter Wiebler,  Head of the USAID Mission, Catalin Gherman, Deputy Head of Cooperation, European Union Delegation to Georgia, Mzia Todua, Acting Chief of Justice, Giorgi Mikautadze, Secretary of the High Council of Justice, and Tamar Chugoshvili, First Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, opened the conference.

The conference focused on the importance of women’s full and equal participation in the judiciary, gender stereotyping, the impact of gender diversity on judicial decision making, including gender-sensitive sentencing, and other important issues.

The discussions tackled the issue of women representation in judiciary. Based on October 2018 data, the total number of judges in Georgia is 306. Although among them 53.3% are women judges, their representation at the level of managerial positions is much lower. Out of 26 Chairperson of the court, only 4 positions are held by women.  Out of 9 chamber chairpersons, only 2 are female, while no female judge is chairing any of the boards within the Georgian judiciary.

The aim of the conference was to empower women judges, to share professional experience and best practices, and underline the benefits of equal representation at the various levels of judiciary.

The conference gathered judges from all around the country, representatives of the Government, Parliament, and donor and non-governmental organizations.

The event was organized by Council of Europe project ‘Support to the Judicial Reform in Georgia’, USAID Promoting Rule of Law in Georgia Program – PROLoG, and European Union funded Judiciary Support Project - EU4Justice.