Supreme Court of Georgia

Conference on the Role of Women Judges in the Judiciary

Published: 11/08/2018

The international conference on ‘The Role of Women Judges in the Judiciary’ took place on 5 November 2018 in Tbilisi, hotel “Radisson Blu”organized by Council of Europe project ‘Support to the Judicial Reform in Georgia’, USAID Promoting Rule of Law in Georgia Program – PROLoG, and European Union funded Judiciary Support Project - EU4Justice.

The conference welcoming remarks were made by Cristian Urse, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Tbilisi.

The aim of the conference was to empower women judges, to share professional experience and best practices, and underline the benefits of equal representation at the various levels of judiciary.

Based on the data from October 2018, the total number of judges in Georgia is 306, including 53% of female representatives. However, their number is significantly low on the managerial positions. From 26 chairpersons, only 4 are women, from 9 women of the chambers only 2 are women and the panel composition consists of only men.

Mzia Todua, the acting chairperson of the Supreme court of Georgia, in her speech talked about  the significant role of women in Georgian  history and, in particular, in Georgian judiciary. She stated that currently women judges still compose majority, though their enhancement at the managerial positions would facilitate improvement and development of the judiciary. She highlighted women’s ability to be more organized and balanced that will have positive feedback in the judicial system.

Other speakers at the conference were: Giorgi Mikautadze,  Secretary of the High Council of Justice,  Tamar Chugoshvili, First Deputy Speaker of the Parliament and representatives of donor organizations.

Judge Allyson K. Duncan, chair of the International Judicial Relations Committee of the U.S. Judicial Conference, spoke about the significance of equal involvement of women in the judiciary and, in particular, her talk covered issues of “Judicial Integrity based on U.S. experience”.  The conference also touched upon the importance of women’s full and equal participation in the judiciary, gender stereotyping, the impact of gender diversity on judicial decision making, including gender-sensitive sentencing, and other important issues.

The event was concluded with Gala Reception at the Supreme Court of Georgia.