Justice Minister presents draft of justice reform in the Parliament
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, September 25
The Justice Minister, Tea Tsulukiani, has presented a draft of justice reform at the session of the Human Rights Committee in Parliament, which aims to change the court system and transform it to become more free and transparent.
The draft implies several changes in the Law of Overall Courts, such as automatic distribution of cases among the judges, appointment of Court Chairs through elections, increase of number of judges in the Supreme Court and also abolition of the posts of Deputy Chairs of Supreme and Appeal Courts.
According to Tsulukiani, when the current government came to power, the first step they made was the de-politicization of the Justice Supreme Council, which ensured that the politics is no longer involved in the activities of the court.
“The right way of making reforms is making them within the law. The judges who in the past were unable to stay impartial, will be deprived of the authority,” stated the minister.
She noted that after the reforms, the court system will be more transparent, independent and free of politics.
“The number of the Supreme Court member judges in the past used to be determined by a small group of people but from now lawmakers will decide the number of judges, which is 16 at the moment and should be increased at least up to 28,” Tsulukiani stressed.
The Chair of the Supreme Court, Nino Gvenetadze also attended the session.
“I know that the Court Corps did not meet the reforms with enthusiasm but along with the Justice Ministry we established a good tradition- to discuss all details openly and in the end we managed to agree on main issued,” Gvenetadze said at the session.
Moreover, The Human Rights Committee discussed the legislative proposal of the non-governmental organizations - to increase the number of female representatives in state institutions.
