“Thousands prisoners have problems because of judiciary miscarriages. When Coalition Georgian Dream came in power, they proposed idea of creating commission for judiciary miscarriages but the idea encountered some challenges. Government is afraid that state will not be able to pay compensations to citizens, who may be victims of arbitrary judgment or imprisonment. At the conference, we discussed alternative mechanisms for the eradication of judiciary miscarriages,” board chairman at the HRHT Aleko Tskitishvili said.
Chairman of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association Kakha Kozhoridze spoke about alternative legal mechanisms: “Today’s conference dealt with long-term problem of the society. Initially, there was idea to establish commission on judiciary miscarriages. We expected the Ministry of Justice to turn the bill into a law but finally the government did not approve it. There is an idea to address judiciary miscarriages via Constitutional Court or via special chamber at the Supreme Court of Georgia. In short, there are ideas, but apparently there is no political will of the government to implement these initiatives.”
Idea about interference of the Constitutional Court in the problem resolution process belongs to the Public Defender’s Office. Head of Judiciary Department at the Public Defender’s Office Natia Katsitadze spoke about their initiative at the conference: “After the Ministry of Justice made announcement about postponed establishment of the commission, we decided to offer some alternative mechanisms which might be used instead. We elaborated legislative initiative and believe that widened authority of the Constitutional Court will be a good option; it aims to grant authority to physical and legal persons to appeal judgments of general courts.”
Another topic discussed at the conference was property right and freedom of business in Georgia. Head of legal programs at the Business and Economy Center Irakli Kereselidze said today still there is a threat that negative practice of past years will repeat in the business field. “Principles of procedural democracy and rule of law mean that human rights, including rights of businessmen, shall be protected by the law instead by individual sympathies or antipathies. We spoke about important idea of establishing commission for international survey, which will make facts of judiciary miscarriages more clear for the government of Georgia and convince them in the urgency of the topic.”
Head of Legal Aid Center at the Human Rights Center Tamar Avaliani presented a report about impact of past years’ judiciary miscarriages on prisoners current situation.
Representatives of the participating NGOs expressed their opinions about different mechanisms of restoration of justice. It was noted that state shall pay adequate attention to the process and respond to all acute questions of the society with regard to this problem.
Nino Devidze
