Human Rights Committee approves Londa Toloraia as State Inspector
By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Tuesday, June 11
The Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee of the Parliament of Georgia supported the candidacy of Londa Toloraia as a State Inspector. As the chairperson of the Committee, Sopio Kiladze said, there were no votes against Toloraia’s candidacy.
The open competition for the State Inspector was announced on May 17, 2019. Everyone interested could participate in the competition, in the end, 48 people registered.
The Competition Commission for the State Inspector presented only two candidates to the Prime Minister, both of them working for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Londa Toloraia being the Director of Human Rights Department and Valeri Lomuashvili – former Director of the Research and Development Department.
In order to select a candidate for the position of the State Inspector, the Competition Commission was established on April 23 of the current year. The Commission consisted of representatives of the Government of Georgia, Parliament of Georgia, Supreme Court of Georgia, NGOs and Public Defender.
Before the voting, both candidates had the opportunity to talk with the representatives of the Committee about their experience and eligibility for the State Inspector position.
Answering the questions regarding her history of working with previous, United National Movement Government, Toloraia said that she never identified as a part of any political party, and moreover, she has never carried out any political orders.
“I have been conducting investigations, as well as prosecutorial supervision and you cannot find anyone who will say that Londa Toloraia violated their rights at any point,” noted Toloraia.
As the 1TV reports, Lomuashvili said that is was not in his competence to talk about the legitimacy of the competition, which was criticized by the opposition parties. As he says, the decision was made by the selection committee, “but I can tell you that during the interview, 80% of my monologue was related to my vision of functioning and development of the office.”
The Parliament of Georgia adopted the Law regarding the State Inspector in July of 2018. According to the law, the State Inspector's Office is an independent state body, which aims to control the lawfulness of the personal data processing, an impartial and effective investigation of the offenses committed by a civil servant or someone with equal to them, etc.
The current State Inspector, Tamar Kaldani, is due to resign on July 1. From that point, the new function of the inspector's office to investigate the crimes committed by the law enforcers will come into force.
