PACE co-rapporteurs express concern regarding selection of judges in Georgia
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, September 27
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Georgia expressed serious concern regarding the manner of making the list of Supreme Court judge candidates which has been recently sent to the parliament for approval.
The rapporteurs noted that questions have been raised about the qualifications of some candidates selected by the High Council of Justice, as well as concerns relating to allegations of clear conflicts of interest. However, they welcomed steps to make the process more transparent.
Titus Corlatean (Romania, SOC) and Claude Kern (France, ALDE), who concluded their visit to Georgia, said shortcomings in the process included a “lack of clear and uniform selection criteria, excessive discretion” by High Council of Justice members in who is selected, and a “failure to provide reasoned decisions” for both the establishment of the shortlist and the final selection of candidates. The same issues have also been outlined by Georgia’s Public Defender, the OSCE/ODIHR and NGOs.
The co-rapporteurs believe that all the shortcomings could have been avoided if the authorities had fully implemented the recommendations of the Venice Commission, contained in its urgent opinion on the selection and appointment of Supreme Court judges, in particular with regard to secret voting, uniform criteria and reasoned decisions.
“We expect that these recommendations will be promptly adopted and implemented for all appointment and career-related decisions by the High Council of Justice,” they stressed.
Now that the process has been moved to the parliament, the co-rapporteurs say it is a unique opportunity and responsibility to rectify these shortcomings.
“The parliament should hold open and transparent interviews with the candidates, based on uniform criteria, and come to a well-reasoned decision. In addition, given the questions that have been raised over the quality of the candidate list, it is important that parliament only appoints the minimum number of judges needed to ensure the proper functioning of the Supreme Court. The remaining positions should be filled on the basis of a new list of candidates, properly established by the High Council of Justice and preferably after the 2020 parliamentary elections, in line with the Venice Commission recommendations,” they said.
However, regarding the reform of the judiciary, the co-rapporteurs welcomed the agreement reached in the Working Group established to draft the fourth wave of judicial reforms and expressed their hope that the reforms agreed in the Working Group would now be promptly adopted by the parliament.
The Parliamentary Committee on Legal Issues began the process of interviewing of judicial candidates to be appointed at Supreme Court of Georgia a few days ago. The interviews are being held in accordance with the alphabetical order of the names of the candidates. According to the procedure, initially, the candidate is introduced, then the candidate presents a report, and then the interview process begins.
In total, 20 candidates for posts in the Supreme Court, who received the highest scores from the majority of the High Council of Justice members, were presented to the parliament for approval. The list of candidates includes the current judges, the incumbent secretary of the High Council of Justice, former members of the Council, the chairman of the Constitutional Court, the Prosecutor General and his deputy.
