Justice Ministry announces date for selecting European court judges
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Friday, March 31
Georgia’s Ministry of Justice has responded to the opposition's accusations over the postponing of the date for naming the Georgian candidates for the position of judge of the European Court of Human Rights (EctHR), and stressed the selection process in Georgia would be concluded in mid-summer.
The statement came after European Georgia opposition members accused the government of deliberately postponing the date as they “lacked relevant skills” and qualifications to conduct the competition in line with European standards.
“Those who wish to participate in the competition must submit their documents before April 14. A special commission will present five nominees for the European Court until July 1. The commission will send the nominations to the Government for final selection. Thus, from April 14 until July, presented documents must be discussed and candidates must be selected,” the Justice Ministry reported.
The ministry stressed that the reason for changing the terms was the solution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to select the Georgian representative in the court at the autumn session.
“Accordingly, the Government of Georgia must represent final three candidates at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe until August 31,” the statement reads.
Member of the European Georgia parliamentary opposition Otar Kakhidze criticized the government for postponing the date for selecting candidates for the Strasbourg based international court.
Kakhidze hoped the government would consider the country’s image, and would present candidates for the European court who “won’t be rejected” by the court as happened last year.
