GYLA: clan rule of Georgia’s High Council of Justice remains a major challenge
The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association says that the Georgian High Council of Justice is not free in its decisions and is run by a clan of judges.
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The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association says that clan rule of Georgia’s High Council of Justice (HCJ), an independent body which selects and appoints judges around the country, remains a major challenge.
In its ninth monitoring report of HCJ GYLA says that the current regulation of selection of members for the High Council of Justice ‘benefits the clan.’
The report says that the ‘clan’ exercises control on the two/third of votes in the HCJ which is sufficient to make decisions and appoint their favorite candidates in top judiciar positions.
One of the major levers of the clan power is that their favorite candidates always take top positions in the court system,” says GYLA.
Despite the calls of the international community on the HCJ to pause the election of its new members, as well as candidates for the country’s Supreme Court, the High Council of Justice has recently elected its four of 15 new members and selected candidates for the Supreme Court.
The EU and the US embassies have expressed their dissatisfaction towards the decision and called upon the HJO once again to wait for the implementation of the April 19 EU-mediated agreement which proposes large-scale judiciary reforms in Georgia.
The Georgian High Council of Justice (HCJ), an independent body which selects and appoints judges around the country, has selected nine candidates for judge in the Supreme Court despite the calls of foreign diplomats and the opposition to pause the process.
Deputy head of EU’s European External Action Service (EEAS) Luke Pierre Devin has disapproved of the recent election of four new members in the Georgian High Council of Justice, the body which selects and appoints judges in the country.
EU and US ambassadors to Georgia say that the election of judges to Georgia’s Supreme Court and members of the High Council of Justice should take place only after major justice reforms have been carried out in line with the recent EU-mediated agreement signed by the majority of Georgian political parties back in April 2021.
Opposition MPs from Lelo, Strategy Agmashenebli, Khatuna Samnidze from Republican Party, independent MP David Bakradzea and MP Zurab Japaridze from Girchi-More Freedom have demanded the postponement of elections for four new members of Georgia’s High Council of Justice.
The ruling party says that it supports appointing of judges to the country’s supreme court despite calls from the opposition to place a moratorium on the process. Chair of the ruling party Irakli Kobakhidze said earlier today that the process would not be paused because the party has already fulfilled several conditions stipulated by the agreement between the opposition and the ruling party.
The appointment of judges to the Supreme Court by the Georgian High Council of Justice (HCJ) must be stopped temporarily until fundamental reforms are implemented in the judiciary and a wide discussion of the issue is held, US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan said earlier today at a conference of the International Society for Fair Elections And Democracy (ISFED) on Digital Election Campaign and Information Manipulations in Georgia.
Georgian judges have released a joint statement in which they condemn what they say is a ‘politically motivated and unhealthy process which aims to discredit the Georgian judiciary.’ The letter by 310 judges comes in response to statements from the opposition, NGOs and foreign embassies which call for a moratorium on the election of new judges to the Georgian Supreme Court and the High Council of Justice (HCJ) until the ‘full implementation’ of the April 19 EU-mediated agreement.
US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan says that the Georgian parliament has the power to temporarily suspend the election of new judges to the country’s Supreme Court.
Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria has stated that she will not participate in screening of candidates for judges to the country’s Supreme Court in the state legislature.
The Georgian parliament has appointed six judges to the country’s Supreme Court, despite calls from the opposition, NGOs and the international community to suspend the process in compliance with the EU-mediated agreement which put an end to six months of political tension over the country’s October 2020 parliamentary elections. Parliament made the decision at today’s session, which was delayed after opposition activists and NGO representatives entered parliament and occupied the speaker’s seat, demanding the resignation of PM Garibashvili.
NGOs have claimed that the ruling Georgian Dream party does not want the independence of the judiciary, following the appointment of six judges to the Supreme Court by the Georgian parliament yesterday, despite the calls from opposition, NGOs and the international community to place a moratorium on the process, in line with the EU-mediated agreement, which ended the political standoff caused by the parliamentary elections of October 2020.
The EU Commission has announced that failure to pause the appointment of judges to Georgia’s Supreme Court, as provided for in a recent agreement mediated by the EU between the government and the opposition in April, could negatively affect the release of the second tranche of EU financial assistance to the country. Six judges were nominated to the Supreme Court by the Georgian parliament on Monday, despite calls from the international community, NGOs and opposition for the postponement of the process.
The US State Department has called on the Georgian government to suspend the process of the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court, urging the authorities to implement the April 19 EU-mediated agreement which ended months of a political standoff caused by the parliamentary elections of 2020. The US State Department says that ‘comprehensive, transparent, and inclusive judicial reform’ must be carried out before the process can continue.