Georgia selects 3 candidates for European Court judge

The Georgian Government has selected three candidates of judges, one of whom will represent Georgia in the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to monitor breaches of human rights of 800 million Europeans in the 47 Council of Europe (CoE) member states.

Sixty-eight people applied to take Georgian judge’s seat at the ECtHR, which became vacant after the nine-year term of Georgia’s current representative Nona Tsotsoria expired last year.

From these 68 applicants, a specifically established governmental commission, headed by Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani, selected five of the best candidates according to their qualifications and good knowledge of either English or French – the official languages of the Strasbourg-based court. This short-list was then sent to the Government to select three candidates.

The three selected candidates are:

• Lado Chanturia - Georgia’s ambassador to Germany since 2014, Chairman of the Supreme Court in 1999-2004 and Justice Minister in 1998-1999
• Sophio Japaridze – Georgian Prime Minister’s advisor on human rights and gender equality since 2014
• Shota Getsadze – Judge of Tbilisi Court of Appeals and member of the High Council of Georgia

Now the Government must send the nominations of three selected candidates to the CoE, who will choose one person in autumn 2017.

Georgia had to hold the selection process for the second time now since the CoE rejected all of the three previously selected candidates.