Supreme Court of Georgia

Supreme Court opened an international conference on the topic: "The Criminal Proceedings in Georgia – Existing Challenges of Rapprochement with the EU"

Published: 10/23/2015

On 22 October 2015 in the Supreme Court the two-day international conference was opened. The topic of the conference is: "The Criminal Proceedings in Georgia – Existing Challenges of Rapprochement with the EU”. The aim of the conference represents comparative analysis of the criminal legislation of different countries, namely, whether the Georgian criminal procedures and proceedings are met with the international standards, the European Convention and precedents.

The Chairperson of the Supreme Court of Georgia and the High Council of Justice – Nino Gvenetadze in the welcoming speech expressed particular gratitude for participation in the conference: Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Georgia’s head of economic, legal and consular department - Mr. Joahim Heker; The Project Director of German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation (IRZ) in the South Caucasus - Ms. Teresa Talhamer; Deputy Chairman of the Bremen Court of First Instance - Ms. Ellen Beast; Chairman of the Chamber of Erprut second instance court - Mr. Holger Propstel; Chairman of Legal Issues Committee - Mr. Vakhtang Khmaladze and the member of the Constitutional Court of Georgia – Mr. Merab Turava.

Conference participants were addressed by Mr. Joachim Heker, where he stated, that Germany was actively involved, and reiterates its readiness to cooperate closely with the Georgian part in the process of criminal justice reform by providing legal assistance. He expressed hopes that Georgia will continue its European path and will remain faithful partner to Germany.

Conference participants also were addressed by the Project Director of German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation (IRZ) in the South Caucasus - Ms. Teresa Talhamerma. She noted: “IRZ was established in 1992 by the initiative of German Federal Ministry of Justice and its goal for setting up was providing the legal assistance of former Soviet countries in the process of establishing the justice system. The thematic priority of the mentioned organization presents the criminal law and especially in this area German part expresses the readiness to share their knowledge with Georgian colleagues.

At the beginning of the conference, chairperson of Supreme Court reviewed the main tools of the Georgian Criminal Procedural Code and noted: "Fair trial standards, the rule of law, independence of the judiciary, administration of the criminal proceedings and protection of human rights must be carried out within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial judiciary, by ensuring the public court processes.” Nino Gvenetadze paid attention to introduced innovations in criminal proceedings, In particular, on plea bargaining and jury trials institutions. She stated that coming out from practice these institutions require refinement at legislative level: "Despite the mentioned challenges, the success of procedural law is: protection of the personal right and privacy, which is guaranteed by the fact that the requirement is established by taken advanced court approval of the arrest and / or conducting the searching; Or during the arrest and / or the search in the case of urgent necessity, after, the legality of actions is to be examined by the court. "

The following topics are to be discussed by the participants in the framework of the conference: Use of Inquisitorial proceedings in Germany; existing requirements of European Human Rights Convention in respect of criminal proceedings; Interrogation of witnesses on pre-trial stage; providing the judiciary independence and working experience with lay judges.

The conference program provides an active dialogue and discussion format. During the break for foreign colleagues it is planned to look at historic building of the Supreme Court and museum of justice.

It should be noted that the International conference is organized by the Supreme Court of Georgia and the International Legal Cooperation of German Foundation (IRZ).

International Conference will be finished on October 23, 2015

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