Georgian parliament speaker announces competition to elect five non-judge members of high council of justice
Papuashvili said members of the parliament, judges and prosecutors would not be able to be nominated as candidates for the membership of the high council of justice. Photo: Parliament of Georgia press office
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Shalva Papuashvili, the speaker of the Georgian parliament on Thursday announced a competition to elect five non-judge members of the high council of justice, whose positions have been vacant for “more than a year”.
Under the Georgian organic law on common courts and the parliamentary rules of procedure, members of the council are elected with a 90-vote quorum and they should be citizens of Georgia, as well as have higher legal education and at least five-year professional work experience.
Papuashvili said members of the parliament, judges and prosecutors would not be able to be nominated as candidates for the membership of the high council of justice.
Candidates are selected from professors and researchers working in higher educational institutions in Georgia, as well as from the members of the country’s bar association and individuals, whose candidates are submitted by non-entrepreneurial (non-commercial) legal entities. These institutions have the right to nominate candidates.
The competition is set to run from Friday until October 20.
The United States Embassy to Georgia on Wednesday made a recommendation to the Georgian Parliament to allow lifetime appointments for the country’s Supreme Court judges to retain “qualified and experienced” personnel, as part of its general recommendations on the judicial reform to the state legislature.
Four Georgian-based non-governmental organisations that reviewed the implementation of the European Union-mediated April 19 agreement between the Georgian government and opposition, which put an end to six months of political tension over the country’s October 2020 parliamentary elections, say ambitious electoral reform was partly carried out in the country while pointing out that the fulfilment of judicial reforms almost failed.
Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday said he expected the United States Embassy in Tbilisi to be "as transparent as possible" over allegations of its interference by Tbilisi City Court Judge Lasha Chkhikvadze, and make clarifications over the matter "if necessary".
Head of the European Union delegation to Georgia Carl Hartzell said the recent appointments of two new judge members to the High Council of Justice, was ‘hasty, non-transparent and non-competitive’. Ambassador Hartzell said that these appointments took place on the day after local elections they were therefore ‘at odds with Georgia’s commitments aimed at increasing the independence, accountability, quality and trust in the judiciary’, in line with the EU-Georgia Association Agreement