Watchdogs Decry Supreme Court Appointments

The Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary, uniting about 40 CSOs, today slammed the appointment of four Supreme Court judges by the Georgian Parliament as “unjustified and damaging.”

The CSOs voiced concern that the existing rules for the selection and appointment of judges are “fundamentally problematic” as well as that the Parliament appointed the justices through a “single-party vote, in the absence of a broad political consensus.”

The Coalition criticized the Georgian Parliament for not considering the numerous calls of the civil society, Public Defender, the international community to delay electing the top court judges “until ensuring that the processes would be conducted fairly, free from partisan or corporate interests.”

The statement slammed the ruling party, arguing its “lack of will” to make final decisions based on a broad public and political consensus reduced the interest of civil society organizations and opposition political parties to engage in candidate hearings. 

The Coalition argued the selection process cast “a shadow over selected judges, and the court system as a whole,” and would diminish the prospects of restoring confidence in the judiciary. 

Another issue the watchdogs highlighted was that the seats for five of the six non-judge members at the High Council of Justice, the body overseeing the judiciary, remain vacant. According to the Coalition, the decisions the Council makes are therefore dominated by the judge members, which reinforces perceptions of “clan-based governance” in the judiciary.

The CSOs asserted that similarly to past instances, the selection process at the HCoJ “left the impression of inconsistency, unequal treatment and stereotyping towards candidates.”

Read more on the controversial appointments:

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)