‘Mini Strasbourg’ model rejected
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Monday, March 20
A mini 'Strasbourg model', envisaging the creation of an analog of the European Court of Human Rights in Georgia, proposed by the public defender and some experts of constitution in the 73-member constitutional commission, has been rejected by the working group.
“The initiative meant the Constitutional Court of Georgia to have a right to re-check the verdicts delivered by common courts of Georgia and voice the final solution,” one of the authors of the initiative, Vakhushti Menabde, an expert in constitutional issues, said.
He stressed that if accepted, the new role of the Constitutional Court would decrease the number of appeals sent from Georgia to the Strasbourg-based European Court.
“The initiative has been rejected and the Constructional Court won’t be granted the new function,” Menabde stated on March 18.
The parliamentary opposition and majority were both against the initiative.
Member of the European Georgia opposition Otar Kakhidze stated that talks about the 'mini Strasbourg' were “not serious”.
He said he had already heard of such an initiative from the head of the Supreme Court of Georgia, Nino Gvenetadze and judge Merab Turava.
“Recently we saw how the European Court suspended the verdict adopted by Georgia’s Supreme Court over Rustavi 2 TV's ownership.
“No matter what type of local legal mechanism would be created in Georgia, the Strasbourg court should be the final stage, which would discuss various verdicts’ compliance to the Euro convention,” Kakhidze said.
Member of the Georgian Dream majority Eka Beselia said granting more rights to the Constructional Court was premature, as it required various changes and more finances for the increased number of staff.
