European Court rejects Georgian nominees

Three Judicial candidacies submitted to European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) from Georgia had their applications rejected.

Interviews were held with candidates Eva Gotsiridze, Alexandre Baramidze and Giorgi Badashvili on September 29-30 2016, though the voting was put off until January 2017.

The ECtHR was tasked with selecting a single candidate for the position of European Court judge.

Georgia will have to hold another competition and present new candidates for the position, as the nine-year term of Georgia’s representative to the ECtHR, Nona Tsotsoria, expires this month.

In February last year, the Governmental commission selected five candidates for the role, namely current Deputy Minister of Justice Aleksandre Baramidze; Giorgi Badashvili, a Georgian lawyer at the ECtHR; the President’s Parliamentary representative, Anna Dolidze; Georgia’s High Council of Justice member, Eva Gotsiridze; and Human Rights expert Nana Mchedlidze.

Later, the Government selected three nominees, Baramidze, Gotsiridze and Badashvili and sent their documents to the Court.

However, the Court did not select even a single candidate for the position.

The civil sector and even some members of the Governmental Commission tasked with selecting the candidates stated that the criteria for selecting the nominees has changed.

The United National Movement opposition claims the Government named the candidates who were affiliated with its team and that was the main reason of the failure and it is Georgia’s “shame”.

Majority member Zakaria Kutsnashvili said the decision “was not good”, but procedures would be re-launched for selecting the nominees.

The Court’s decision indicates that the criteria used in Georgia for selecting the judges were not in line with the European Court’s approaches.

The rejection of the Georgian candidates by European Court proves that there was something wrong in the approach of Georgian authorities involved in the process. Since Georgia has to submit new candidates it has to deal with this issue more accurately so that not to miss its chance.