Tools and methods for an effective evaluation of judges’ performance were the focus of a workshop jointly organised by the Support to the Judicial Reform in Georgia Project of the Council of Europe and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), in Tbilisi on 14 and 15 November 2017.

The workshop, prepared and carried out in co-operation with the Supreme Court and the High Council of Justice of Georgia (HCoJ), gathered more than 30 participants including HCoJ members and staff. Nino Gvenetadze, Chief Justice and the HCoJ Chairperson and Giorgi Mikautadze, HCoJ Secretary also participated in the event.

Participants benefited from contributions by ODIHR and Council of Europe experts, practitioners from Latvia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and the United Kingdom.

“Through this workshop, we aim at contributing to the HCoJ efforts to improve the mechanisms for evaluating the work of judges, which would certainly benefit from more thorough and transparent assessment instruments, as aimed by the Georgia’s Judicial Reform Strategy”, said Cristian Urse, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Georgia.

Ghenadie Barba, Chief of the ODIHR Rule of Law Unit said: “Adequate evaluation of judges’ work is an essential component for building trust and confidence in the judiciary, and I am glad to see that our Georgian colleagues have such a strong commitment to this issue.”

Participants discussed the purpose of evaluating judges’ work, the ways to balance quantitative and qualitative criteria, and the sources of data for evaluation. They also took stock of international standards, methods and good practices, and explored challenges and potential risks associated with this task.

This workshop is part of ODIHR’s work to strengthen judicial independence and accountability in Georgia. The “Support to the Judicial Reform” project is 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.