Last updated: Wednesday, 17 April 2024

Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary

Concept - Fair Trial Summary of the Online Public Discussions

A series of public discussions, "Concept - Fair Trial" was organized and conducted by the Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary, from July 17 to November 2, 2020. Public Discussions aimed at holding public online discussions on the problems existing in the judiciary and the possible solutions with the participation of various stakeholders.

Organizing public discussions on the one hand, is a mechanism for generating market ideas on issues that are necessary for the society, and on the other hand, is a precondition for increasing social legitimacy for the process of the Judiciary reform.

Participants of the discussions:

Non-governmental organizations:

Georgian Democracy Initiative (GDI)
Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA)
Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF)
Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI)
Rights Georgia
Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC)
Democracy Index

Professional Unions:

A group of independent lawyers

Public Sector:

Public Defender of Georgia
High Council of Justice of Georgia
Legal Aid Service
Georgian Bar Association

Academia

Giorgi Meladze - Associate Professor of Ilia State University

The vast majority of public discussion speakers acknowledged the fundamental institutional problems in the Judiciary system, the existance of a small, influential group of judges, so-called “clan” within the judiciary, the low degree of individual independence of the judges, the prevailing elitism, Judges' dishonesty, favoritism and nepotism. The speakers' attitudes towards the ways of solving the identified problems were different, however, they unanimously agreed that the reform of the Georgian Judiciary system willcould be achieved not by fragmentary, but by complex and unified legislative changes.

The public discussions were interactive – any Facebook user was able to ask questions to the speakers, to express their views on issues of fundamental importance for the discussion. The public discussions covered the following topics:

Reform of the Supreme Court of Georgia, Revision of the procedures for selecting the judges of the Supreme Court;^{^[1]}
Composition of the High Council of Justice - existing problems and possible solutions;^{^[2]}
The High School of Justice - Functional and institutional independence;^{^[3]}
Individual independence of judges - Key challenges;^{^[4]}
Judiciary and publicity;^{^[5]}
Constitutional Court of Georgia – Existing challenges;^{^[6]}