The Public Defender of Georgia has applied to the Constitutional Court with a request to suspend the normative acts determining the selection of Supreme Court judges.

On November 1, 2019, the Public Defender filed a constitutional lawsuit with the Constitutional Court of Georgia and demanded declaration of the procedure of selection of Supreme Court judicial candidates for the submission to the Parliament of Georgia by the High Council of Justice unconstitutional.

The Public Defender considers that the selection procedure violates the constitutionally guaranteed right of a citizen to hold a public office and the right to a fair trial.

According to protocol No. 3/24/1459 of 17 December 2019, the Constitutional Court of Georgia will consider the Public Defender’s constitutional suit on its merits.

According to the order of the High Council of Justice of 17 March 2020, the procedure of selection of Supreme Court judicial candidates has begun for two new vacancies.

The Public Defender of Georgia considers that the legislation regulating this process contains a high risk of arbitrarily conducting the selection process and irreversibly violating the constitutional rights of the participating candidates. These risks are also mentioned in numerous documents of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. Accordingly, we consider it necessary to suspend the disputed norms, which will automatically halt the process of selection of judges.

Therefore, the Public Defender of Georgia made a decision to apply to the Constitutional Court to suspend the disputed normative acts. We hope that the Constitutional Court will consider this issue as promptly as possible.