On 19 April 2019, Public Defender of Georgia, Nino Lomjaria, delivered a speech in the Parliament of Georgia relating to the draft law on the rule of election of members of the Supreme Court of Georgia.

"I, as the Public Defender, who, in accordance with the constitution, shall supervise the protection of human rights on the territory of Georgia, cannot naturally ignore the issue of formation of the judiciary. When it comes to the right to a fair trial in the country, it is crucial how judicial institutions are formed and what the procedures are in this direction. Judicial independence is the cornerstone of human rights. Judicial independence and public trust are largely conditioned by the processes of selection, nomination and appointment of judges," Nino Lomjaria said.

For achieving this goal, the Public Defender addressed the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and requested them to submit its opinion. World-class experts prepared a report in the shortest period. The Venice Commission submitted its recommendations as well. As a result, today we have opinions of two authoritative international organizations relating to the draft law on the rule of election of Supreme Court judges.

When speaking about the international organizations’ attitude to the draft law, the Public Defender, apart from the report of the Venice Commission and the opinion of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, drew attention to the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, recommendations of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, documents of the European Networks of Councils for the Judiciary, opinions of the Consultative CouncilofEuropeanJudges, Cape Town Principles and other sources that set forth important standards relating to the selection of Supreme Court judges. Public trust in the electoral system of judges is especially important and is considered by the European Court as a necessary element of the principle of rule of law.

The internal threats of violation of judicial independence were mentioned in the US State Department's annual report as well.

Given all the above assessments, the NGOs operating in Georgia and the Supreme Council of Justice have confronted each other and no resource has been left for dialogue, whereas the foremost obligation of the judicial system is to have effective and transparent communication with public organizations.

In addition, the processes ongoing in the High Council of Justice are constantly tensed. There is active confrontation between the judicial and non-judicial members of the Council on a daily basis.

The Public Defender has been indicating the shortcomings in the draft law on the selection of Supreme Court judges for the last few months. During her speech in the Parliament, she founded her arguments on the reports of the Venice Commission, ODIHR and other authoritative international organizations and spoke about the negative aspects of the hasty adoption of the draft law.

Nino Lomjaria expressed her satisfaction over the fact that the Parliament of Georgia took into account some of the recommendations and removed the requirement for non-judicial candidates to take the judicial qualification examination from the draft law. In addition, the recommendation relating to the conflict of interest has been considered and the member of the High Council of Justice, who at the same time is a judicial candidate, has been eliminated from all procedures of selection. However, according to the Public Defender, it is necessary to specify that the member of the Council should not attend the session at all and should not perform administrative-organizational functions in the selection process; inter alia, he/she should not have access to information about other candidates.

The Public Defender criticized the secret ballot at all stages of the selection of judges. According to her, such a system casts doubt on the justification of decisions and eliminates the appeal mechanism.

The draft law does not determine the procedure and criteria for the election of the Chairperson of the Supreme Court, which should provide guarantees for the realization of fundamental principles, such as judicial independence and judicial impartiality.

At the end of her speech, the Public Defender offered the Parliament to continue to additionally work on the draft law in order to use all the available means, inter alia, to consider the opinions of the most authoritative organizations, as a result of which, the country will get a document that is fully consistent with the high standard of human rights. According to Nino Lomjaria, ODIHR experts will arrive in Georgia at her invitation on May 16 and May 17, which will provide an opportunity to discuss the issue with them.

Nino Lomjaria requested the delivery of a speech at the plenary session of the Parliament under Article 154 of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of Georgia.