Following the request of the Public Defender of Georgia, on June 16, 2023, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) prepared a Note[1] on several issues related to the justice system of Georgia.

On December 5, 2022, the Public Defender addressed OSCE/ODIHR and asked to prepare a legal opinion on the issues related to justice, which the Public Defender raised during the process of working on the judicial reform, but were not reflected in the draft law submitted to the Parliament. The Parliament of Georgia started working on the judicial reform after the European Commission issued 12 recommendations for Georgia to receive candidate status on June 17, 2922. Representatives of the Public Defender participated in the work of the judicial reform working group created by the Legal Issues Committee of the Parliament of Georgia.

The OSCE/ODIHR Note, referring to international and regional authoritative recommendations, case law and practices from the OSCE region, reviews the following issues:

• the modalities of decision-making within judicial councils to avoid the risk of corporatism and mechanisms to ensure consensus of judicial and non-judicial members on fundamental issues;
• the general rules on allocation of cases to individual judges and composition of the bench, including exceptions, to prevent external or internal undue influence;
• the procedures for selecting, appointing or electing a court president to ensure independence from the executive and legislative branches but also from within the judiciary;
• the status and privileges of judges holding administrative or managerial positions, which should allow them to maintain a link with judicial practice;
• the system of verification of judges’ asset declarations; and
• the safeguards to ensure the independence of the body in charge of initiating disciplinary cases against judges.

The work on the amendments to the Law on Common Courts has already been completed in the Parliament of Georgia, and on June 13, the amendments were approved in the third reading. We hope that the Note prepared by OSCE/ODIHR based on the request of the Public Defender will play an important role in the preparation of future reforms related to the judicial system, taking into account the context and needs of Georgia.

[1] OSCE/ODIHR Note of 16 June 2023, available at: https://legislationline.org/sites/default/files/2023-06/2023-06-16%20Final%20ODIHR%20Note%20on%20Several%20Issues%20relating%20to%20Judicial%20Reform%20Georgia%20ENG.pdf