A Governmental commission has selected five candidates, 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.
Forty-seven people applied to represent Georgia at the ECtHR, which will become vacant later this year when the term of Georgia’s current representative expires.
From these applicants, the specifically established commission 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.
The five shortlisted candidates are:
Now the Government must select three out of the five candidates and send their nominations to the CoE, who will name one person in autumn 2016. This comes as Georgia’s current representative Nona Tsotsoria’s nine-year term in the ECtHR expires.
The special Governmental Commission interviewed 47 applicants. Photo by the Ministry of Justice of Georgia.
The Governmental commission, headed by Georgia’s Minister of Justice Thea Tsulukiani, was composed of Deputy Foreign Minister Khatuna Totladze, the Government’s Parliamentary Secretary Shalva Tadumadze, head of Parliament’s Human Rights Commission Eka Beselia, deputy head of the Supreme Court of Georgia Mzia Todua, Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili, representative of the Bar Association of Georgia Zaza Khatiashvili, Dean of the Faculty of Law of the Tbilisi Ivane Javakhishvili State University Irakli Burduli, and Coalition for Independent and Transparent Judiciary representative Ana Natsvlishvili.
The ECtHR is an international court in Strasburg, France set up in 1959 to hear individual or state applications alleging violations of the civil and political rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights. Since 1998 it has sat as a full-time court, and individuals can apply to it directly.